[2] Former athletes Aziz Daouda and Brahim Boutayeb convinced Gharib to focus on longer road events, sensing his potential for further distances.

[1] He ran at the 2002 IAAF World Cross Country Championships the following year and a tenth-place finish in the long race gained him a team bronze medal with the Moroccan men, which was led by Abderrahim Goumri.

[3] He scored a silver medal at the 2002 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships as he set a personal best of 1:00:42 to finish seconds behind the winner Paul Malakwen Kosgei.

Despite it being only his second outing over the distance, he saw off Michael Kosgei Rotich and Julio Rey to forge a lead in the final stages and win the gold medal in a Championship record time of 2:08:31.

[10] He competed at his first Olympics at the 2004 Athens Games but failed to match his previous global form and finished in eleventh place in the men's marathon.

The move proved fruitful as, in spite of a sleepless night and stomach pains during the competition, he won the world championship marathon with an eleven-second margin over runner-up Christopher Isengwe.

He finished the London Marathon in a time of 2:08:45 – the third fastest run of his career at that point – but this was only enough for eighth in a fast race which saw him beaten by compatriot Hicham Chatt.

At the Chicago Marathon later that year he came close to victory but a photo finish between Gharib and Patrick Ivuti resulted in the Moroccan being declared the runner-up.