The two-time reigning European 3000m steeplechase champion, France’s Mahiedine Mekhissi will try to make it three in a row at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich from 12-17 August.
He is also plotting a small piece of history by adding the 1500m to his programme in Zurich. No athlete has ever won both titles during the same championships in the history of the European and World Championships, nor has this been achieved at the Olympics.
The main reason very few athletes tend to participate in both events is due to the tight scheduling. This year, the 1500m heats take place the morning after the steeplechase final, which means Mekhissi will barely have any time to recover.
The Frenchman already proved he can perform over 1500m with gold from the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg and finished fourth in last year’s European rankings with 3:33.12.
His main rivals over the distance will be Türkiye’s Ilham Tanui Ozbilen with a personal best of 3:31:30, Norway’s Henrik Ingebrigtsen who is the reigning champion from Helsinki, and his own countrymen Florian Carvalho who took silver behind Ingebrigsten two years ago.
Mekhissi has maintained his European steeplechase supremacy over the years, with two silver medals at the Olympics and two bronzes from World Championships to go with his two continental titles and will therefore be almost unbeatable in Zurich with a personal best of 8:00.09.
This is why a new challenge was necessary for him to keep things exciting and will undoubtedly add some intrigue to his week in Switzerland.