Anglo-Italian middle-distance man has enjoyed an eventful athletics adventure with relentless and impressive improvements along the way
When Ossama Meslek toes the line in the Olympic 1500m semi-finals on Sunday (Aug 4) in Paris, it will be the latest chapter in a remarkable story for the British-based Italian athlete.
Ossama Meslek
The 27-year-old lived in three different countries growing up and speaks four languages. With athletics it was not exactly love at first sight – finishing well down the field in West Yorkshire Cross Country League races as a youngster – but he persisted and is now a tantalising three-and-a-half minutes away from reaching the Olympic final.
After being baulked in the closing stages in his first round heat in Paris on Friday, he jogged in last in 3:39.96. “I lost all my momentum,” he explained, “so decided to run in and save my energy for the repechage.”
In the repechage on Saturday he finished strongly to run 3:35.32 in third place as Ireland’s Cathal Doyle won the race in 3:34.92 from Azzedine Habz of France, who clocked 3:35.10, with all three men securing qualification for the semi-finals.
“I was a bit against it but now I like it!” said Meslek on the repechage. “I think you just have to take it on the chin. It’s the same for everybody and there’s no point worrying about it.”
Ossama Meslek (Getty)
Meslek was born in Vicenza, Italy, in January 1997 but he moved to Morocco at the age of three and lived in Casablanca for seven years.
After that his family moved to Leeds and he went straight into an English-speaking school with no ability to speak English to begin with. He is a fast learner, though, and now speaks Italian, Arabic, French and English, the latter fluently with a Yorkshire accent to boot.
Aged 15 he joined Leeds City AC but packed it in after some humbling experiences in local races. Two years later he returned, this time as a sprinter. He wasn’t born to sprint, however, and soon after he joined coach Phil Townsend’s group and his middle-distance running times began to tumble.
At the English Schools Championships in 2015 he showed further promise by finishing sixth in the 1500m. After this, his progression continued. After starting a mechanical engineering degree at Huddersfield University, for instance, he went on to finish eighth in the 2019 European under-23 1500m final representing Italy.
Meslek signed with Forte Sports Management and began studying at Loughborough in 2021. Remarkably, he then decided to self-fund his athletics, buying and selling second-hand cars after fixing them up in his parents’ driveway.
He also began to be coached by Matt Yates – and the 1992 Olympian and former world 1500m finalist is in Paris watching his athlete compete this weekend.
Ossama Meslek (Mark Shearman)
The athletics successes continued. In 2022 he ran an Italian 1500m record of 3:36.04 and made teams for the World Indoors and European Championships. In 2023 he was disappointed to miss out on the World Championships in Budapest but he signed a sponsorship deal with Hoka and improved his national record to 3:33.92.
Earlier this summer he won the main race at the Bannister Miles anniversary event in Oxford in 3:56.15 and was congratulated by Hicham El Guerrouj, the Moroccan who holds the world 1500m and mile records.
Ossama Meslek and Hicham El Guerrouj (Will Palmer)
“He came over to me and tried to speak to me in English and I thought ‘why are you talking to me in English?’” says Meslek. “So instead we ended up having a great chat in Arabic.”
He added: “One of my clearest memories is watching El Guerrouj run in the Olympics in my grandad’s café in Morocco and it was amazing.”
Ossama Meslek (Will Palmer)
On Sunday night he lines up in his Olympic semi-final with Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya, Neil Gourley of Britain, Narve Gilje Nordas of Norway, Hobbs Kessler and Yared Nuguse of the United States among others with only the first six men assured of making the final.
The other semi-final, meanwhile, sees Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway rubbing shoulders with Britain’s world champion Josh Kerr plus Brit George Mills and US champion Cole Hocker.