photo by Ryan Lavendar
Mohamed Khadraoui had not run anywhere
but his home course at Garret Mountain, so the wise guys on TrackTalk's
New Jersey board discounted his winning streak. Then he went against
state leaders Peter Hess and Keith Kreiger in the New Jersey Group
4 championships, and he came back with his first loss of the season
to confirm the concept of Khadraoui as a local hero. His track
times last spring (4:31 and 9:37) did not seem to predict a state
champion a few months later.
But Mohamed learned a lesson in the
Group meet that paid off a week later in the New Jersey Meet of
Champions at the same Holmdel Park. "They [Hess and Krieger]
made a move on me in the bowl and I didn't expect it," Khadraoui
told the Bergen Record's Paul Schwartz. "This time I wanted
to make the move."
So Khadraoui keyed on the frontrunning
Krieger, who had been caught by Hess's kick in the Group race,
and stuck with him from the start. Coach Ken Samra said, "We
thought Mohamed had a little bit better kick than Krieger and
knew Krieger went out harder than Hess, so we wanted Mohamed to
put the hammer down earlier."
Krieger and Khadraoui broke away
from the field midway in the race, and Mohamed eased away from
Krieger in the last quarter mile. "I was surprised we dropped
Hess but I knew he was still back there not far behind us,"
said Khadraoui. "And then when I started to pull away a little
down the final hill, I kept my arms pumping as hard as I could,
thinking 'This is it, I have to win.' I was pumping so hard I
couldn't feel my arms." And he did it all while fasting for
Ramadan.
Growing up in his native Morocco,
Khadraoui was a soccer player like everyone else. Now he has decided
he is a runner first and has dropped soccer.
Khadraoui came to the US 2 years
ago to live with his sister, and his parents still live in Casablanca,
Morocco. He is 18 years old, which gives him one more year of
eligibility for high school sports in New Jersey.
DyeStat Elite performances: Time
Dist Pos/Meet
15:41 5k 1 @ Passaic Co NJ 10/25/2002
15:41 5k 1 @ NNJIL NJ 10/15/2002
15:48 5k 1 @ Meet of Champions NJ 11/23/2002
