AFP
17 September 2000 – Sydney - Morocco's world 5,000m champion Salah Hissou has pulled out of the Olympics after failing to recover from an ankle injury, Moroccan officials said Sunday.
The 28-year-old Hissou damaged the ankle at the start of the year and was out for some time before attempting a comeback in a series of races over 3,000 and 5,000m.
Hissou came to Australia with the Moroccan delegation, but felt the pain in his ankle once again at their training camp in Brisbane and he decided to withdraw.
The Moroccan took the bronze medal over 10,000m at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the year he also briefly held the world record over the distance, and was third in the World Championships in Athens the following year.
In Seville, he took gold in the 5,000m in a time of 12mins 58.13secs.