Jairus Birech at the 2017 World Athletics Championships (© Getty Images)
World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that Jairus Birech, Kenya’s 2014 African 3000m steeplechase champion, has died at the age of 32.
Birech was born on 14 December 1992 and began competing in the steeplechase as a teenager. He claimed his first major medal in 2011, when he secured silver as part of a Kenyan 1-2 behind Gilbert Kirui at the African U20 Championships in Gaborone. He went on to finish fourth in that year’s All-African Games in Maputo.
He was the fastest 3000m steeplechaser in the world in 2014 thanks to the 7:58.41 he clocked to win the first of his two Diamond League titles in Brussels. That performance followed his African title win in Marrakech, his silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and a series of other Diamond League wins – in Rome, Oslo, Lausanne, Monaco and Birmingham – that year.
That 7:58.41 in Brussels remained his PB and it still places him 12th on the world all-time list.
He also topped the world list in 2015 (7:58.83), the year in which he finished fourth at the World Championships in Beijing – missing a medal by just 0.08. He claimed another three Diamond League meeting wins that year and retained his Diamond League title.
He made the final at the 2017 World Championships in London and continued to compete on the Diamond League circuit until 2018. He made a full switch to road racing in 2019 and last competed in 2020.
World Athletics
