Abderrahime Bouramdane Hometown: Fes, Morocco Age: 30 Personal best: 2:08:20 (Seoul, 2007) Career notes: Abderrahime Bouramdane improved his personal best time by more than two minutes at the JoonAng Seoul International Marathon this past November. At the race he cruised to a strong second-place finish only six seconds back from the winner, Joshua Chelenga. The champion of three marathons and runner-up at three more, Bouramdane wants to make a strong first showing at Boston and says, “My expectation for Boston is to perform well and score points for the World Marathon Majors.” Personal notes: Bouramdane started running in 1995. “I became interested in running the Olympics after seeing a tape of Abdessalem Rhadi, who ran the marathon for Morocco in the 1960 Olympics and placed second after Abebe Bikila,” says Bouramdane. “Rhadi was from my hometown of Fes. Others from Fes who ran in the Olympics were Khalid Skah, who won gold in the 1992 Olympic 10,000 meters and Brahim Lahlafi, the bronze medalist in the 2000 Olympic 5,000 meters.” Bouramdane likes to play soccer when he is not training. He is affiliated with the Atlas Mountains Athletics group. -- Courtesy BAA [ Close window ]