Morhad Amdouni, French marathon champion: “I believe I can run 2:04 to 2:05 without any trouble, and with better form I can target 2:02 to 2:03”

Morhad Amdouni became French marathon champion for the first time on Sunday in Ambès, Gironde. The French record holder won in 2:13:21 to claim the 13th national title of his career. It was a winning return for the Porto-Vecchio native, who is convinced he can still post some seriously fast times and hopes to follow this victory with more success. Interview.

Morhad, you marked your return to competition by winning the French marathon title. What’s the overriding emotion?

I was with Florian Caro at the half-marathon, and my only goal was to become French champion, regardless of the time. My training camp in Kenya was disrupted. I was hit by a motorcycle at the beginning of April, one week before the Rotterdam Marathon on April 12, so I couldn’t prepare ideally. I didn’t get in as many miles as planned and didn’t do many easy runs. Yesterday, for example, was my first long run in a while. I raced for the title, but I treated it like a training session, with a little extra pressure to win because I’m the French record holder. The French Championships weren’t originally on my schedule, but it was important for me to pay tribute to the people who support me every day, as well as my first coach, Hafid Hammaoui, who died nine months ago, while also shining a light on this event.

It’s a way of thanking the people who support me every day and of being rewarded for the effort it has taken not to give up and to keep going. I’m determined and ambitious. I still want to win major titles.
Morhad Amdouni

You took control of the race from the halfway point…

Around the 12th or 13th kilometer, Florian Caro and I found ourselves together. Unlike me, he had a time goal. We were on 2:10 to 2:11 pace and he wanted us to keep going, but at one point he cracked. I tried to stay with him for a bit, but I could see he was in the red. I continued at my own pace. This was a championship race, with a national title to go after.

Morhad Amdouni became French marathon champion for the first time on Sunday in Ambès, Gironde. The French record holder won in 2:13:21 to claim the 13th national title of his career. It was a winning return for Morhad Amdouni, who is convinced he can still post some seriously fast times and hopes to follow this victory with more success. Interview!

How did you manage the final stages on your own?

Around the 25th kilometer, there were attacks and surges in the pack. I could feel that the pace was already very hard. I preferred to absorb each move, and it worked very well. I was running on the limit, but I managed to get back on because I had the impression that the guys were looking at each other a bit after every attack. I believed in myself. I knew I was suffering for three or four minutes, but I also knew there was a chance the pace would ease and I could come back.

There are qualifying standards, but if a federation sees that an athlete has potential and could win a medal, it shouldn’t pass up that opportunity.
Morhad Amdouni

The time wasn’t your goal on Sunday. What is your true marathon potential right now?

With so little training in my legs at the moment, I believe I can run 2:04 to 2:05 without any trouble, and with better form I can target 2:02 to 2:03. By becoming French marathon champion, I thought it might lead to something in terms of selection for the European Championships in Birmingham, that people might trust me based on my record, including my French record from two years ago. I’ve raced for France and defended the national jersey many times, winning a European 10,000m title, medals, and finishing eighth at the World Half Marathon Championships. The work you put in earlier in your career can also be rewarded on the sporting front. Of course, I knew it would be complicated because there are qualifying standards, but if a federation sees that an athlete has potential and could win a medal, it shouldn’t pass up that opportunity. It would also have been a way to showcase the French Championships.

There’s definitely a marketing war between Nike, adidas and the other brands. We’ve entered another dimension, where money rules.
Morhad Amdouni

If you had been offered the chance, would you have been ready to race the European Championships marathon?

With a three- or four-month build-up, yes. I want to show that I’m still capable of making the podium. Crippa certainly showed what he can do by winning the Paris Marathon, but sometimes you have to trust athletes, break with convention and back them when competition is the priority. What Emmanuel Roudolff-Levisse has done is huge too. It shows that French marathon running is moving forward, but I feel I still have things to prove. My limit isn’t 2:03. What I do in training doesn’t yet match what I do in competition. In Seville, I think I could have run 2:02 without any trouble. Until you give everything, you don’t know what you’re capable of. I don’t have another marathon planned for now. I need a little more consistency in training and to avoid physical problems.

What do you make of the historic London Marathon, including Sabastian Sawe’s world record of 1:59:30?

There’s definitely a marketing war between Nike, adidas and the other brands. We’ve entered another dimension, where money rules. We’d been waiting for sub-two-hour marathons for a long time. In one race, two adidas athletes did it ahead of a Nike athlete, with all three beating the previous world record. That’s what surprised me most. From a marketing standpoint, we’re entering a new era that we don’t really know yet. Like the others, Sabastian Sawe worked to claim that record and did everything he could to achieve it, but he didn’t do it alone. There are many factors to consider. The performance is real, but you have to understand the pace: running 27:36 between the 30th and 40th kilometers is incredible. The event is evolving with these new goals and new stakes. Good for him.