Larbi Bourrada

As a teenager he won the bronze medal in the decathlon at the 2007 All-Africa Games.[1] He has been the African record in the decathlon since his performance of 8171 points at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics held in Berlin. He also finished second at the pole vault at the 2010 African Championships in Athletics with a height of 4.60 m behind Hamdi Dhouibi from Tunisia.[2] He was Africa's representative at the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup in the high jump, pole vault and the long jump.[3] He also set an Algerian record for the indoor heptathlon that year, scoring 5911 points as a guest athlete at the French Championships.[4]

In July 2011 he set a new African record with a total of 8302 points at the Ratingen Combined Event meeting in Germany. He set three personal records in the competition: 100 m (10.61 s), long jump (7.94 m) and discus throw (40.34 m). He finished tenth at the 2011 Athletics World Championships in Daegu with a total of 8158 points, including two personal bests: 13.56 s in the 110 m hurdles and 4.90 m in the pole vault. He was eliminated from the decathlon in the 2011 All-Africa Games in Maputo after two false starts at the first event (100 m). The games were held two weeks after the world championships and he said that this was not enough time to recover. He entered the individual pole vault event, however, and won with a personal best of 5.00 m.[5]

Returning to the Ratingen meeting in 2012, he again won the competition with an African record score. He set bests in the 100 metres, shot put and javelin throw to lead from start to finish and collect 8332 points.[6] However, his doping sample at the competition came back positive for the banned steroid Stanozolol.[7] Bourrada was disqualified from the event and given a two-year ban from athletics.[8]

Bourrada returned to competition during the 2014 season, winning his third African title in Marrakech with a personal best and championship record score of 8311 points.[9]

• Larbi Bourrada at World Athletics