Born in
Kenitra, she made her first international appearance for Morocco at the
1998 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where she was sixtieth in the long race. She was twelfth in the
10,000 metres at the
1998 World Junior Championships in Athletics and competed in the junior race at the
1999 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. He first junior honours came at the
1999 African Junior Athletics Championships, at which she won the
1500 metres silver behind
Jeruto Kiptum. She convinced her older sister
Mina Aït Hammou to switch from
handball and
soccer to athletics, which led to much success for the pair. The younger Seltana was the first to win international medals as she became the 800 m champion at the
2001 Mediterranean Games. The following year she took fifth place at the
2002 African Championships in Athletics and won the 800 m gold and
400 metres silver medal at the 2002
Africa Military Games. Aït Hammou competed on the world track stage for the first time at the
2003 World Championships in Athletics, and she came close to reaching the 800 m final, finishing third in her semi-final (in which her sister won and went on to take fourth in the final). She closed the year at the
2003 Military World Games and became the 800 m gold medallist at the event. Her first major indoor competition came in the form of the
2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships and she reached the semi-finals, finishing fifth. Her first Olympics also came that year at the
2004 Athens Olympics and she again reached the global level semi-finals, but she and her sister suffered the same fate of being eliminated at that stage. She ran at the
2005 World Championships in Athletics, failing to make it past the heats, but she scored an 800/1500 m double at the
2005 Jeux de la Francophonie at the end of the year. Aït Hammou won the 1500 m
gold medal at the
2007 Pan Arab Games, and also joined her sister in the Moroccan team to win the silver in the
4×400 metres relay. After being eliminated in the semi-finals at the
2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships she was preparing to compete at the
2008 Summer Olympics. This was not to be, however, as both she and her sister were banned from competition by the
IAAF for missing three out of competition
doping tests between June 2007 and May 2008, resulting in a year-long ban from the sport. She returned at the end of the 2009 season and competed at the
2009 Jeux de la Francophonie. She won the 800 m gold and also took 1500 m bronze in a closely run Moroccan sweep of the event, with
Btissam Lakhouad and
Siham Hilali the other medallists. == Personal bests ==