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Nine-time winner of Morocco's "Marathon des sables" race abandons

Shocking news struck the runners of the Marathon des Sables late Thursday (Apr. 27). 9-time winner of the race, Rachid El Morabity threw in the towel a few minutes after being caught red-handed with food in the bag.

The goal of the race is to cover 250 km in 7 days across the Sahara, in food self-sufficiency. Any food provided by a third party is therefore prohibited. But an unannounced control operated in the tent of the Moroccan proved to be positive.

The sanction of the organization was immediate: a penalty of 3 hours sealing the end of the dreams of tenth title for Rachid El Morabity.

He who was aiming to join his compatriot Lahcen Ahansal in the legend of the event. El Morabity's teammate and compatriote, Aziz El Akkad, has decided to abandon.

Rachid El Morabity's younger brother, Mohamed, remains alone at the top of the ranking, 3 minutes 17 seconds ahead of his direct contender Aziz Yachou.

In the women's ranking, French marathoner Maryline Nakache is first, get ahead of Moroccan Aziza El Amrany and Japanese Tomomi Bitoh by 30 minutes.

2022 Marathon des Sables Results: Mens

The Sahara Desert’s Marathon des Sables (MdS) is as scorching as it is revered. After an October comeback last year following a 2.5-year COVID-19-induced hiatus, the race returned to Morocco again this March.

Temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit and plenty of blistering sunshine are hallmarks of the seven-day, 155-mile desert stage race. Finishing it — or simply running in it — is no joke. Each year, race organizers deploy 120,000 liters of water, a support staff numbering in the hundreds, and a wide array of vehicles, aircraft, and even camels to monitor the action and keep runners safe.

Last year, brutal heat and a virulent stomach bug caused an unusually high 40% dropout rate. In this edition, conditions in the field appear somewhat more stable. However, challenging desert weather still wreaked havoc at times throughout the week of racing.

The 2022 Marathon des Sables started with fair weather on Sunday, March 27. But high heat and howling wind beset the race’s second stage the next day. Though only moderately long, Stage 2 also negotiated plenty of steep terrain.

The wild second stage scrambled runners, especially some perennial race favorites. Eight-time MdS winner Rachid El Morabity (Morocco) led the field coming out of Stage 1 but lost 9 minutes during the marathon-length Stage 2. He landed in third place behind his younger brother, Mohamed El Morabity, a first for the pair as Mohamed has finished second in this race four times, and each behind his winning brother. Mohamed maintained his lead — by a razor-thin margin of 37 seconds — through Stage 4 on Wednesday.

Rachid El Morabity stormed back to win, outpacing the rest of the field — and his younger brother — in the race’s final stage. Mohamed led by around half a minute at all checkpoints on Stage 5, but Rachid overtook him late, and then pulled away.

His Marathon des Sables dominance continues — it’s the ninth time he’s won the race.

Mohamed El Morabity played second fiddle yet again. He claimed his fifth runner-up MdS finish all-time.

Aziz Yachou (Morocco) was the only other runner to finish under 19 hours cumulatively. A strong Stage 5, where he took second, left him 4 minutes back of Rachid El Morabity’s week-long pace. This is Yachou’s second MdS effort, and he improved on his fourth-place debut in 2021.

Merile Robert (France) took fourth and missed the podium for the first time since 2017, and Jordan Tropf (United States) took fifth.

Marathon des Sables Wrapup

After a 2.5-year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was with great anticipation that the 2021 Marathon des Sables took place this week. The famous desert race, which runs in the Sahara Desert of Morocco, travels 155 miles (250 kilometers) over seven days, traversing sand dunes and stone-filled plains in an arid climate where mid-day temperatures easily reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius).

Each day, a mobile bivouac is erected in the desert, which serves as the day’s finish line, campground for the night, and the following day’s starting line. There are six stages total, and five of them are competitive stages. The final stage is an untimed charity stage. Participants must carry their own equipment including food, camping materials, and survival gear along with water rations supplied by the race organization.

Typically, the race takes place in April, which is spring in the Sahara Desert. This October edition was said to be hotter and drier than usual for this race and this time of the year. In addition to the heat, a stomach virus ravaged many of the participants. By the end of the week, dropouts amounted to over 40% of all starters, an unusually high drate for this particular race.

Sadly, the race claimed the life of one runner due to cardiac arrest. The French man, in his fifties, was an experienced ultrarunner who had met the medical requirements necessary to start the race. iRunFar covered this story earlier in the week.

For the first three days of the 2021 edition, it looked like parity might define the race. Moroccan brothers Rachid El Morabity and the younger Mohamed El Morabity ran close together, leading the rest of the men’s field by just minutes. On the women’s side, Morocco’s Aziza Raji held a bigger, but not insurmountable, half-hour lead over Aicha Omrani (France) and Hassna Hamdouch (Morocco) in second and third.

The stage was set for shakeups in the grueling 50-mile Stage 4. However, Raji and the El Morabity brothers were about to render the outcome academic. At the end of Stage 4, just 15 minutes separated Rachid and Mohamed El Morabity from each other in first and second overall — but the rest of the field lagged behind by over an hour. Meanwhile, Raji had built her lead over the women’s field from less than an hour to a mind-boggling four-plus hours.

In the end, Rachid El Morabity took the win, finishing with a time of 21:17:32. Mohamed took a narrow second in 21:32:12, less than 15 minutes behind his older brother. This marks Rachid El Morabity’s eighth win of this iconic sand race, and Mohamed El Morabity’s fourth 2nd place behind his brother.

Merile Robert (France) was the lone non-Moroccan on the men’s podium, a position with which he’s familiar. This marks his fifth Marathon des Sables finish, with his top previous finish also third behind the El Morabity brothers in 2018.

Aziz Yachou (Morocco) took fourth place, less than two minutes out of podium position, in what was an incredible breakout performance. According to his social media, Yachou received an hour’s penalty during the race due to losing an item of his required kit, which makes this podium near miss even more fascinating. (Required kit and the penalties for missing or losing items are clearly communicated by the race organization before the race.)

Mathieu Blanchard (France, lives in Canada) rounded out the top five, though he was a distant two hours and 20 minutes behind fourth place. He said on social media he suffered the stomach virus during Stage 4. Blanchard has had quite the 2021, following up his third place at the 2021 UTMB with this performance.

Notably, 10-time Marathon des Sables winner and Moroccan sand running legend Lahcen Ahansal finished ninth in the age 50-59 category with a time of 38:16:32.

Aziza Raji demolished the women’s field with a winning time of 30:30:24. It was Raji’s first win. She was second at the last edition and had a few top-five finishes before that. She’s only the second Moroccan woman in the history of the race to win it, after two-time women’s champion Touda Didi.

Tomomi Bitoh (Japan) took second in 34:39:17, moving up in the cumulative standings during the 50-mile Stage 4 and marathon-distance Stage 5 through a well-paced week of racing.

Aicha Omrani finished third in 35:47:48; remarkably, she finished the 2011 Marathon des Sables in nearly the double the time it took her finish this edition.

Hassna Hamdouch and Elise Caillet (France) rounded out the top five.

168 mile Al Marmoom Ultramarathon is one of the world’s longest desert ultras

Set in a rugged national conservation area, the Al Marmoom Ultramarathon claims to be one of the longest desert ultra in the world. The 270km (168 mile) route was run over five days in December in temperatures as high as 35C (95F),.

In its inaugural year, 19 runners (15 men and four women) completed the race, with 36-year-old Moroccan Rachid El Morabity -- a six-time Marathon des Sables winner -- crossing the finish line first in 31 hours and 17 minutes. Eleven runners didn't make it, as well as many others in the shorter 100 km and 50 km versions of the race.

Race manager Ole Brom oversaw of the health and wellbeing of the runners.   Running these distances across energy-sapping sand amounts to an extreme sport, the Norwegian told CNN, and "not something that is taken on lightly."

"On the first day after about 40 km, about 12 km from the end, (one athlete) collapsed unconscious," says Brom. "He ignored the signs of dehydration and he suffered the consequences."

Stretches of the race, including one 100-kilometer leg, were only accessible by air for first responders, explained event director Ruth Dickinson. Athletes wore tracking devices and distress beacons and carried anti-venom pumps in case of snake bites.

Running across the dunes was not without its rewards. "(It's) really peaceful," says 45-year-old female race winner Magdalena Boulet, "(you) can't really see anything for miles and miles."

"It's mesmerizing," Brom adds. "On certain routes there were Oryx, there were sand gazelle, mountain gazelles. We saw eagles (and) a lot of different migrating birds." (As a designated conservation area, runners were penalized for dropping trash and required to bury human waste, should nature call.)

There were still smatterings of luxury, with racers provided hot water, tents and massages between stages. Brom says some athletes told him they'd return for the toilets alone.

The Al Marmoom Ultramarathon will join 400-plus local sporting events ranked by the Dubai Sports Council. Acting director of events Ghazi Al Madani says planning for 2019's race is already underway.

Brom believes transit hub Dubai could become a nexus for desert ultra runners, playing host to regular events in its "backyard." "Ten percent of the landmass of Dubai is sand," he adds, "so it makes perfect sense."

Moroccans won the world’s longest desert Al Marmoom ultra marathon in the men’s division

El Morabity finished the world’s longest desert Al Marmoom ultra marathon of 270 kilometers in under 32 hours (31:17:29), ahead of French runner Muriel Robert and Iranian runner Akbar Najdi Niryan.

In the women’s category, Moroccan Aziza Raji achieved finished second (40:03:20) behind American runner Magdalena Boulet (37:27:59), while Russian Oskana Riyapova finished third (42:17:43).

The sporting event brought together runners from 35 countries who specialize in endurance races.

The victory comes a week after Rachid El Morabity and his brother Mohammed scored Morocco a gold medal during the Oman Desert Marathon. The brothers won first and second places, respectively.