Career
He was the gold medallist in the 10,000 metres at the 2014 Asian Games and the 2015 Asian Athletics Championships. He has a personal best of 27:32.96 minutes for that distance. El-Abbassi initially ran in middle-distance events but a move up to longer distances brought him his first successes.
In his debut over the distance, he set a personal best of 62:53 minutes at the 2011 Marrakesh Half Marathon.
An outing at the Corrida de Langueux 10K run brought him fourth place. He failed to progress much further in 2012, with a podium finish at the Yangzhou Half Marathon and fourth at the Philadelphia Distance Run being his best races abroad.
El-Abbassi established himself among the world"s road running elite in 2013. In January he set a new best of 61:09 minutes over the half marathon in Marrakesh.
He also had a sub-28-minute race at the Casablanca 10K one week later.
He decided to start running for Bahrain and formally requested a transfer of allegiance in August 2013. He became eligible to compete for his new nation in July 2014. He set two track bests in the 2014 season: first a time of 13:33.95 minutes for the 500 metres at the Rabat Meeting then a 27:32.96-minute best over the 10,000 m at the Prefontaine Classic.
The latter time ranked him eleventh in the world that year and the second fastest non-Kenyan after world-leader Galen Rupp.
His international debut for Bahrain was at the 2014 Asian Games.