Charles BENITAH

A multi-talented sportsman, Charles Bénitah excelled in field hockey, fencing, track and field athletics, and automobile racing, and also dabbled in tennis and piloting. Of Jewish ancestry from Morocco, he was a member of the Racing Hockey Club by the age of 16 and is noted among their archives as being one of their top players. In 1926 he not only became the national champion in the 400 metres, but also set a new record (37 seconds) at the 300m distance and captured the junior championships in all three fencing categories. Two years later he repeated the latter feat, this time as a senior competitor. By 1930 his interests had shifted to automobile racing and that year he won the Anfa Grand Prix in his native country in a French-made Amilcar. He remained athletically active throughout his life and attended the 1960 Summer Olympics as both a fencing coach and competitor. In the team épée event he was the victor in two of the squad’s five winning bouts, which was not enough for the Moroccans to advance beyond the first round.