Taranto 2026: Yassine HSSINE and Fatima Ezzahra BIRDAHA to Carry Morocco’s Flag at the Closing Ceremony

The 20th edition of the Mediterranean Games Taranto 2026 comes to an end this Thursday, September 3, with the Closing Ceremony at the Erasmo Iacovone Stadium in Taranto, Italy.

Yassine HSSINE and Fatima Ezzahra BIRDAHA, both competing in athletics, will serve as Morocco’s flag bearers at the Closing Ceremony. Both athletes were crowned double Mediterranean champions in Taranto, with HSSINE Yassine claiming gold in the 100m and 200m, while BIRDAHA Fatima Ezzahra won the 5,000m and half marathon titles.

Scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Moroccan time (8:00 p.m. in Taranto), the ceremony will take place at the same stadium that hosted the Opening Ceremony on August 21. It will bring the participating delegations together one final time to mark the conclusion of the 20th edition of the Games.

The ceremony comes at the end of a record-breaking campaign for Morocco. Competing in Taranto with 120 athletes ( 72 men and 48 women ) across 18 sports, the Moroccan delegation finishes the Games 7th in the final medal table, with 44 medals: 16 gold, 9 silver and 19 bronze. This marks Morocco’s best-ever performance at a single edition of the Mediterranean Games, setting new national records for both total medals and gold medals, while also surpassing the historic milestone of 300 medals won across all its appearances at the Games.

The evening will bring fifteen days of competition in Taranto to a close, gathering athletes, officials and delegations for one final highlight of Taranto 2026 before the handover to the next edition of the Mediterranean Games.