Paris Olympics preview: 3000m steeplechase

Women's 3000m steeplechase

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• Chance for Peruth Chemutai to become event's first two-time champion
• Entry list stars top 10 athletes on season list
• World record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech eyes a first gold for Kenya

Global champions will be on show in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, which brings together the leading 10 athletes on the season top list. The contest includes the world champion Winfred Yavi, defending Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai and the world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech. 

Four countries have won Olympic gold since the women's event was added at the 2008 Games in Beijing – Russia, Tunisia, Bahrain and Uganda. Chemutai’s tactical win in 2021 led to Uganda gaining a first steeplechase title and Chemutai becoming the first Ugandan woman to win gold. After that historic global glory, the 25-year-old missed the podium at the Oregon and Budapest World Championships, but her win at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene in May, which featured Chepkoech and Yavi, could signal a revival just in time for the Games and she clocked a world lead of 8:55.09 there. Chemutai won the African Games silver medal in March, finished third in Xiamen and second in Suzhou. 

Bahrain’s Yavi, who tops the world rankings, got her season under way at the Diamond League in Eugene where she finished ninth in a race meant to test her fitness following a nerve injury. She bounced back to win the Diamond League in Paris, however, clocking 9:03.68 for the fifth-fastest performance of the year so far. She finished a distant 10th at the Tokyo Games, but in three years she has made tremendous progress to become a global title winner.

Kenya and Ethiopia’s best performances in this event at the Olympic Games so far are silver medals – are the nation’s athletes ready to deliver a maiden gold medal? 

Kenya will be represented by world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech and youngsters Faith Cherotich and Jackline Chepkoech. Beatrice Chepkoech will be hoping it is third time lucky, as she was fourth and seventh respectively at the Rio and Tokyo Games. The world silver medallist won 3000m bronze at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March and steeplechase gold at the African Games. 

The 2023 women’s World Rising Star and Olympic debutant Cherotich is another hope. Having turned 20 this month, her athletics resume is also taking good shape as she is the world bronze medallist and world U20 champion. We wouldn’t expect anything less from a youngster who is mentored by Faith Kipyegon. Nicknamed the ‘small’ Faith, Cherotich won the Kenyan trials, came second in at the Xiamen Diamond League and third at the Eugene Diamond League.  

The 2022 Commonwealth champion Jackline Chepkoech completes the Kenyan line-up as she makes her Olympic debut. 

Ethiopia will field only two athletes. World U20 silver medallist Sembo Almayew, who this year finished fourth at the African Games as well as in Suzhou and in Eugene, will be joined by Lomi Muleta, the African Games and African U20 Championships bronze medallist.

Continuing her comeback after injury, Valerie Constien set a US Olympic Trials record and PB of 9:03.22 to win in Eugene at the end of June and book her place for the Olympics, where she will look to follow in the footsteps of Courtney Frerichs and Emma Coburn who claimed medals for USA at the past two editions of the Games. That PB performance puts Constien third on the season top list behind Chemutai and Beatrice Chepkoech and she’ll be joined on the US team by Courtney Wayment and Marisa Howard.

Others in action include Alice Finot of France, who set a national record of 9:05.01 to finish runner-up to Yavi in Paris, plus 2022 world champion Norah Jeruto of Kazakhstan, Tunisia’s Marwa Bouzayani and Great Britain’s Elizabeth Bird, who was ninth in Tokyo.

 

Men's 3000m steeplechase

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• Olympic steeplechase has not had a back-to-back winner since 1932 but Soufiane El Bakkali defends his title
• Lamecha Girma is the world record-holder going after his first global title
• Kenyan team will look to add to nation's haul of 11 gold medals

No man has successfully defended the Olympic 3000m steeplechase title since Volmari Iso-Hollo achieved his victories in 1928 and 1932. A second consecutive gold will be the aim for Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali, who has claimed two world title wins since his triumph in Tokyo.

The 28-year-old has only competed twice this year, with his early season interrupted by injury. He raced to 3000m steeplechase victory at home during the Marrakech Diamond League in May and before that, he placed third at the Elgoibar Juan Muguerza International Cross Country in Spain. 

El Bakkali is the back-to-back world champion and should he win in Paris, he will join two-time Olympic Games winners Ezekiel Kemboi of Kenya and Finland’s Iso-Hollo. 

But El Bakkali’s quest for a second consecutive Olympic golden glory will be met with fierce competition from the world record-holder Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia. The 23-year-old will be after his first global gold in the 3000m steeplechase in the very city where he broke the world record by posting 7:52.11 at the Meeting de Paris Diamond League last year. Girma, who secured silver in Tokyo as well as at the past three editions of the World Athletics Championships, has had a busy year so far, moving between the 1500m, 2000m, 3000m and 5000m distances. His 8:01.63 to win the Diamond League in Stockholm in June is the fastest time in the world so far this year.

Ethiopia also has Samuel Firewu, who started his season with a gold medal at the African Games which was followed by victory in Doha. He went on to finish fourth in Marrakech and second in Stockholm in a PB of 8:05.78.

Joining them is Getnet Wale, who will be hoping to build on his fourth-place finishes at the Tokyo Olympics and World Athletics Championships in 2019 and 2022. He finished third in Doha in May, where he ran his season’s best of 8:09.69.

National trials winner Amos Serem is part of the team tasked with restoring Kenya’s steeplechasing glory. The East African athletics powerhouse relinquished her steeplechase dominance after the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Kenya has won a record 11 Olympic gold medals in this event and 21-year-old Serem, the African Games silver medallist and 2021 world U20 champion, will hope to add another medal to that haul. So far this season he has finished fourth in Doha and third in Marrakech. 

Abraham Kibiwot, bronze medallist from last year’s World Championships, was 10th three years ago in Tokyo. His last race before the Olympics was the Paris Diamond League, where he finished third. Simon Kiprop Koech, second at the Kenyan trials and bronze medallist from the African Games, completes the Kenyan trio. Paris is Serem’s first major global competition at senior level, and Koech will also be making his debut at the Olympic Games.

Another athlete to look out for is the 22-year-old Ryuji Miura of Japan, who placed seventh at the Tokyo Games and sixth at the Budapest World Athletics Championships. He is also the Japanese record-holder with 8:09.91, a time set at last year's Diamond League in Paris.

Paris will be the Olympic debut for 27-year-old Geordie Beamish of New Zealand. Beamish was fifth in Budapest last year and at this year’s Prefontaine Classic he finished fifth. He began the season with a 1500m title at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow and holds the Oceanian record in the 3000m steeplechase with 8:09.64, also set in Paris this year.

There is also Mohamed Amin Jhinaoui, the Tunisian athlete who finished eighth, third and fourth respectively in the Marrakech, Stockholm and Paris Diamond League meetings. India’s Avinash Mukund Sable, the Asian Games winner, also ran a national record of 8:09.91 in Paris.

Michelle Katami for World Athletics