Houssame Benabbou

Getting to know Houssame Benabbou a little

Houssame Eddine Benabbou Azizi (Oujda, Morocco, 25/05/1993), known as Houssame Benabbou, is a Spanish athlete specialising in cross-country and distance events. He was born in Morocco but grew up in Extremadura from a very early age (15/06/2000). He came to athletics at 8 and has never stopped putting one stride in front of another since. In 2014 he obtained Spanish nationality so that he could represent Spain, and that same year he won his first international cap with Spain at the U23 Mediterranean Games held in Aubagne (France), where he took bronze over 10,000 m. He has been Spanish champion in every age group (from U16 to senior) and in every discipline (cross-country, indoor track, outdoor track and road). In 2018, at only 24, he became Spanish half marathon champion, the youngest athlete in the history of Spanish athletics to do so. In 2019 and 2021 he was Spanish half marathon champion again (three consecutive wins) and in 2022 and 2023 he was runner-up, taking him to the podium of the national championships in five consecutive editions. He is the reigning European 50 km road champion, a title won in 2022, the year in which he was also ranked the third-best ultra-distance runner in the world by the IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners). He has won ten senior international caps with the Spanish team and led the national squad at the World Half Marathon Championships in Valencia in 2018.

Sporting achievements…

His best results:

-Spanish senior half marathon champion, Melilla (2018)

-Spanish Junior 5,000 m champion (2012)

-Spanish Junior 3,000 m indoor champion (2012)

-Spanish U18 cross-country champion (2010)

-Spanish U16 3,000 m outdoor champion (2008)

-1st, VI Cross Nacional Ciudad de Palencia Mariano Haro (2018)

-1st Spaniard at the Movistar Madrid Half Marathon (2018)

-1st Spaniard at the Albacete International Half Marathon (2018)

-1st, Gran Fondo Internacional de Siete Aguas (2019)

-2nd, Karlovy Vary Half Marathon (Czech Republic) in 2018

-2nd, Carrera Liberty in Madrid (2018)

-2nd, Aranda de Duero cross-country race (2017)

-2nd, Cross Nacional de la Espada Toledana (2016)

-3rd, Cross Nacional Ayuntamiento de Cantimpalos (2018)

-3rd, Cross Nacional San Juan Evangelista in Sonseca (2019)

His personal bests:

-3,000 m: 8:09:29 (2017)

-5,000 m on the track: 13:50:97 (2016)

-10,000 m on the track: 29:26:09 (2016)

-Half marathon: 1:02:45 (2019)

-Marathon: 2:10:45 (2019)

-50 km: 2:49:20 (2022)

What you might not know about Houssame…

He is a Level II Athletics Coach qualified by the National Centre for Athletics Training and the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation, and a Senior Sports Coach qualified by the Higher Centre for Sports Education (CSD) and the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation. He is currently studying for a Master’s in High-Performance Sport at the Olympic Centre for Higher Studies, a body of the Spanish Olympic Committee itself. From 2020 to 2025 he worked for the Spanish Olympic Committee on its programme in schools in Extremadura and Andalusia.

He loves travelling, food, pets (he has 5 cats at home) and listening to music in his free time or while training — all alongside his dual career as a professional athlete, his constant training and his work for the Spanish Olympic Committee.

Houssame has also worked as an instructor and trainer on social reintegration programmes at the Cáceres and Badajoz prisons, helping to organise sporting activities and also chess.