MECHAAL Adel

Spain

Athletics

Date of Birth: 5 Dec 1990

Age: 30

Gender: Male

Place of birth: EL JEBHA

Birth Country:

Morocco

Place of residence : ISTANBUL

Residence Country:

Turkey

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Athletics	Men's 1500m	5

Schedule

Change

Location	Event	Status
Olympic Stadium - Track	Men's 1500m Round 1 - Heat 3	Finished
Olympic Stadium - Track	Men's 1500m Semi-Final 2	Finished
Olympic Stadium - Track	Men's 1500m Final	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

Athlete:

Olympic Games

Year	Location	1500m	5000m
2016	Rio de Janeiro, BRA	Round 1 (3:48.41)	Round 1 (13:34.42)

World Athletics Championships

Year	Location	1500m
2019	Doha, QAT	Heats (3:37.95)
2017	London, GBR	4th (3:34.71)
2015	Beijing, CHN	Heats (3:46.05)

European Championships

Year	Location	5000m	10,000m
2018	Berlin, GER	DNF	4th (28:13.78)

Diamond League overview - Three best ranks per season and event since 2017

Year	1500m	3000m
2019	1 x 8th	-
2018	1 x 13th	-
2017	-	1 x 5th

Diamond League - Ten best performances since 2020

Rank	Year	Event	Location	Result
5	2017	3000m	Paris Saint-Denis, FRA	7:35.28
8	2019	1500m	Lausanne, SUI	3:33.91
13	2018	1500m	Rome, ITA	3:39.14

World Challenge - Ten best performances since 2020

Rank	Year	Event	Competition	Location	Result
10	2017	5000m	World Challenge	Berlin, GER	13:27.37

World Cross Country Championships

Rank	Event	Year	Location	Result
10	Team Cross Country Long Distance	2017	Kampala, UGA	221
DNF	Individual Cross Country Long Distance	2017	Kampala, UGA	DNF

World Indoor Championships

Year	Location	3000m
2018	Birmingham, GBR	5th (8:16.13)

World Half Marathon Championships

Rank	Event	Year	Location	Result
8	Half Marathon Team	2020	Gdynia, POL	3:05.30
46	Half Marathon	2020	Gdynia, POL	1:02:30

Legend
SF - Semifinal, QF - Quarterfinal, 1R - 1st Round, Qual. - Qualification, QR - Qualification Round, DNF - Did Not Finish, DNS - Did Not Start, DQ - Disqualified, NM - No Mark, [Relay athlete without time] - Did not run in final

Occupation:

Athlete

Education:

Administration Studies

Family:

Wife Emine

Languages spoken:

Arabic, Catalan, Spanish

Sporting relatives:

His brother Said competed at the 2019 European Cross-Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal. His wife Emine Hatun Tuna won individual gold at the 2014 European Cross-Country Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria, representing Turkey. (rfea.es, 11 Mar 2016; sport.es, 06 Aug 2019; Instagram profile, 27 Feb 2020; SportsDeskOnline, 24 Jun 2020)

Injuries:

In mid-2019 he suffered a herniated disc, which prior to diagnosis had caused him multiple related injuries including ankle dislocations and pain in his thighs, lower back and shoulders. He fully recovered in February 2020. (Instagram profile, 22 Feb 2020)

Start:

He took up athletics in 2010. (marca.com, 13 Jun 2013)

Reason:

He initially played football but was convinced to switch to athletics by coach Josep Carballude. (marca.com, 13 Jun 2013)

Ambition:

To compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (runnersworld.com, 16 Jan 2020)

Training:

He regularly travels from his home in Istanbul, Turkey, to train at the High Performance Centre [CAR] in Sant Cugat del Valles, Spain. (efe.com, 09 Jun 2020)

Memorable:

Winning silver in the 3000m at the 2017 Diamond League event in London, England. (runnersworld.com, 16 Jan 2020)

Hero:

Moroccan middle-distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj. (marca.com, 13 Jun 2013)

Award:

He was named Male Athlete of the Year by the Catalonian Athletics Federation in Spain in 2015, 2017 and 2018. (lesportiudecatalunya.cat, 17 May 2019)

He was named Male Spanish Athlete of the Year for 2017 by the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation. (eldiadevalladolid.com, 16 Mar 2019)

General Interest

General
FROM MOROCCO TO SPAIN
He moved from Morocco to Palamos, Spain, at age five. His father had moved to Spain in 1989 to work on construction of the Olympic Village for the 1992 Games in Barcelona, and arranged for Adel and the family to join him in 1995. "We travelled on a bus of a friend of my father to Ceuta, and from there we boarded the boat to Algeciras, and finally we took the bus to Barcelona where my father picked us up." He obtained Spanish citizenship in 2013. (elperiodico.com, 13 Feb 2016; deportes.elpais.com, 02 Mar 2015; eldiario.es, 25 Mar 2017)

MOVE TO TURKEY
In 2019 he relocated to Istanbul, Turkey, with his wife, who is Turkish. "I was feeling empty and wanted to make some changes. I needed to focus more on my personal life in order to regain strength. The most important change was to move to Turkey. I think this decision was the key factor that helped me find the right balance between personal and professional life." (runnersworld.com, 16 Jan 2020; marca.com, 05 Dec 2019; sport.es, 06 Aug 2019)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
In 2019 he and his siblings Cheyma and Said launched the Mechaal Palamos Athletics Club in Palamos, Spain. The club is a joint project with the local government and aims to get more young people involved in athletics in the area. "We want to go to local schools to do a physical education presentation and an athletics class. We will give children the chance to join us and try the sport." He has also worked as a counsellor and sports secretary for the city council of Calonge and Sant Antoni de Calonge in Spain. (runnersworld.com, 16 Jan 2020; tvcostabrava.com, 15 Jun 2019)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

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