14th February 2013 07:30
Mekhissi-Benabbad has not raced over the boards for three years but he has been making an exception this winter and is currently the fastest man over the metric mile in Europe.
In Karlsruhe earlier this month, the Frenchman set a lifetime best when he crossed the line first in 3:36.95 and followed that up with second on home turf in Val de Reuil in 3:38.37 on Tuesday. It was after that outing that replaced Lievin on the calendar that Mekhissi-Benabbad announced his intent.
'I am going to Göteborg to compete over this distance to the best of my ability,' declared the Frenchman. 'I'm in good shape, it's just a question of good preparation and it's encouraging going forward,' he added just after finishing a close second to Moroccan Abdelaati Iguider.
'I haven't run indoors for three years, but I have broken my personal best not only for 1500m but 3000m as well.'
Six days after his exploits in Karlsruhe, Mekhissi-Benabbad recorded his fastest time ever over 3000m in Düsseldorf, coming home in 7:43.72.
Ever since he lifted the European U23 title in Debrecen five years ago, the Frenchman's career has gone from strength to strength. A year later he collected Olympic silver in Beijing and followed that in 2010 with the European crown before sealing back-to-back golds in Helsinki in last June. He then proceeded to London where he grabbed yet another Olympic silver.
It was in the wake of that success that he decided to leave his coach of three years, Farouk Madassi, and proceeded to coach himself. It was while he was preparing for the winter season in Portugal in December that the national middle distance coach, Philippe Dupont, became alerted to the situation and flew out to see him.
'I went to Portugal to find out what was going on,' Dupont explained to French media. 'It was damaging that after six weeks there still wasn't a solution to the problem. Mahiedine is one of the leaders of French athletics alongside Renaud Lavillenie and Christophe Lemaitre.
'That was when he asked me to lend him a hand for the winter, which I accepted because it is out of the question to leave this man on the street. My priority remains my post as middle distance manager for the federation so we shall see how things go. In the meantime we continue until the end of the winter season.'
It was after his second Olympic silver last summer that the Reims athlete decided to take time off from competing. 'I no longer had the desire [to compete],' he admitted. 'Even though I continued to train twice a day very hard throughout the whole of the month of August.'
'To be effective, you have to become someone else,' added his agent, Rachid Esmouni, at the time. 'You need to be full of rage.'
Well, the rage seems to be well and truly back. Watch out Göteborg!