The women’s steeplechase made its longdelayed appearance on the World Championships programme here in Helsinki, and along with that first came another one—the first championships gold medal ever for Uganda and only the second medal of any kind for that central African country.
Tonight, Dorcus Inzikuru was the historic inaugural winner of the event in a championships record 9:18.24, lowering her own mark from Saturday’s qualifying round by more than nine seconds.
Yekaterina Volkova (RUS), who had remained well back for much of the race, paced her ending well and took the silver medal in a PB 9:20.49, ahead of bronze medallist Jeruto Kiptum (KEN) with 9:26.95, a Kenyan national record.
The diminutive Inzikuru wasted no time in moving to the front at the gun, but she was quickly picked up by Salome Chepchumba (KEN) and, a half lap later, by Wioletta Janowska (POL). That trio held the lead for the opening tour of the stadium before Yelena Zadorzhnaya (RUS) took over the lead for a short time.
At the end of the first kilometer, Chepchumba dropped back with her teammate Kiptum, while Inzikuru, Zadorzhnaya and Janowska formed a front-running trio at that point.
With four laps remaining, Janowska began to drop back, seemingly leaving the Ugandan and the Russian to fight it out the rest of the way. That was Volkova’s signal to start her move.
She clipped off the two Kenyans first, and then took aim on the lead group. At that moment, her teammate Zadorozhnaya started to fatigue. Running even with Inzikuru with just over three laps left, the tiny Russian took a bad water jump to allow the Ugandan a 5-metre advantage with three remaining.
Janowska also was running out of energy at this point, and Volkova moved to within striking range of the Polish runner with 2½ to go.
On the penultimate water jump, Zadorozhnaya almost fell, allowing Volkova, having already passed Janowska, a clear path with only Inzikuru as an obstacle to victory.
At the bell, Volkova appeared to have sudden thoughts of a win, despite the 20 metres which separated her from the front-running Inzikuru. As the pair moved down the final back straight, the Ugandan began to lengthen her stride as her own victory plans propelled her onward into the finish.
Running almost unnoticed in the middle of the field for most of the race, Korene Hinds (JAM) held on to her fourth-place position in a national-record 9:33.30. Meanwhile, early front-runner Chepchumba was able to catch an exhausted Zadorozhnaya right at the end for fifth, 9:37.39 to 9:37.91.
Winner Inzikuru, understandably proud of her landmark achievement, revealed that her victory was not without a struggle. “I’ve been suffering from some knee injuries, but now I’m happy to be able to run once again,” she said. Despite her determined appearance at the front in her gun-to-tape win, she admitted that it was not her plan to head the race the entire way, “but I took that position because I don’t like running behind others.”
In gaining the silver, Volkova paid tribute to the winner. “Inzikuru was so strong from the start that I knew I could not beat her, even if I did my best,” said the happy Russian as she left the stadium.
