taroudant: The Results

Sunday was our last day in morocco so we watched the race and then had a long lunch with friends in the Jnane Soussia. The race was interesting and clearly well supported by participating locals. I missed snapping the men's winner as after a long wait some quad bikes screeched to a halt directly in front of us and the two front runners streaked past sprinting for the line before I got my camera set but I did get a picture of the women's winner. The crowd applauded everyone but with particular appreciation of some of the older runners who were clearly popular and well known locals. The most applause went to one runner whom I had noticed at the start. When relaxed he had twitches and an unbalanced gait which suggested cerebral palsy and when he arrived in a track suit I took him for and observer but when he started running the spasms disappeared and he was a creature of beauty and elegance when he ran. I have seen similar transformations in people with tardic dyskinesia. He was not one of the fastest finishers but by no means one of the slowest and certainly one of the most popular.
The winner of the men's race was a local which gave particular satisfaction but the women's race went to an Ethiopian. Our friend told us over lunch that everybody had finished and nobody had dropped out, although some of the older apple-shaped men seemed to need water and assistance in the heat and finished at a walk. A coach for the local athletics club stood in the road about 50m from the post clapping everybody on and encouraging them to jog over the line.
The restaurant served us mechouel and the elusive women's football team were haveing a team lunch in a back room. The children just loved the swings and playground and a very pleasant time was had. The only confusing thing was our friend's insistence that we must know of Richard Marx a very famous singer songwriter like the Beatles and the Eagles whose songs were used to teach english. I have googled him since and he appears to emanate from California in the 90s. I taught him the following poem which I cribbed from Maurice de Sautoy's book to illustrate homophons

                   11 was a racehorse
                   12 was12
                   1111 race
                   12112

RESULTS

11 MARCH 2012: ASTA 10km INT'L DE TAROUDANT, MOROCCO

MEN:
1  Ahmed BADAY                       MAR  27:56
2  Simon CHEPROT                    KEN  27:57
3  Hafid CHANI                           MAR  28:30
4  Jonas CHERUIYOT                 KEN  28:41
5  Mourad EL BENNOURI           MAR  28:50
6  Khalid SAADDEN                   MAR  28:53
7  Jawad LAARISS                     MAR  28:56
8  Ataly YIRSAW                       ETH   29:00
9  Reuben INDONGO                  NAM  29:03
10 Noureddine BOUCHMAMA     MAR  29:08

WOMEN:
1  Amare MEKASHA                   ETH    31:47
2  Agnes BARSOSIO                  KEN    31:50
3  Winnie JEPKEMBOI                KEN   32:02
4  Rkia EL MOKIM                      MAR   33:43
5  Marina PETROVA                   RUS    34:03
6  Aziza ALAOUI SELSOULI        MAR   34:11
7  Salima CHARKI                      MAR    34:18
8  Alexandra JAWOR                  POL    35:05
9  Khadija EL AARIBI                  MAR   36:07
10 Hanane TOURCHI                  MAR   36:48