Steeplechase for women, 3000 metres An Overview of the 3000 Meter Steeplechase at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
3000M Steeplechase Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
The steeplechase’s perennial kingpin hasn’t been quite as dominant in 2021, leaving the door wide open for anyone to win heading into Tokyo.
Beatrice Chepkoech set a new world record in 2018 with a time of 8:44.32, and she won the 2019 world championship with a championship record time of 8:57.84, finishing nearly five seconds clear of the rest of the field.
She missed a barrier in both the 2016 Olympic and 2017 World Championship competitions, which likely contributed to her fourth-place finishes in both. She came back strong, winning 17 of her next 19 races in 2018 and 2019. She has also accumulated 7 of the 14 sub-9 minute steeplechase times in history.
However, the Kenyan has not yet won a steeplechase event in 2021, despite a promising start that included a world record of 14:43 over 5km and an indoor 3000m PB of 8:31.72 just three days later. At the Wanda Diamond League competition in Monaco, she ran a personal best of 9 minutes, 4.94 seconds to place a distant second.
Hyvin Kiyeng, another countrywoman, came out on top in a thrilling race. Due to human error with the lap counter, Kiyeng started her final kick a lap early. Hearing the bell for the actual final lap made her realise her error, but she mustered the will to cling on to her lead and finish first in a season-best time of 9 minutes, 3.82 seconds.
2015 saw Kiyeng take home the global championship, and subsequent years saw him win Olympic silver (2016) and world bronze (2017). Even though she started the year off with a disappointing fourth-place finish in Doha, she has since gone on to win three races, all of which she has won by a wider margin than Chepkoech.
Moreover, Kiyeng will be a significant threat in Tokyo if she is able to defeat a world record holder and world champion while botching her final kick, like she did in Monaco. Possibly, she’ll even be able to beat her 2016 personal best time of 9 minutes, 0.01 seconds.
To many people’s surprise, African Games champion Mekides Abebe, who ran 9 minutes and 2.52 seconds at the Wanda Diamond League event in Doha, is the fastest of the entrants. This year she has only competed against Ethiopian competitors, yet she still managed to win both the Ethiopian Championships in Addis Ababa and the Ethiopian Olympic Trials in Hengelo.
Abebe, at 19, is the oldest of Ethiopia’s steeplechase athletes. Lomi Muleta, who has a personal best of 9:14.03 this year, and Zerfe Wondemagegn, who established the national U20 record in Hengelo with a time of 9:16.95, will be competing with her in Tokyo. All three ladies will be making their Olympic debut at such a young age, but they all represented Ethiopia in the 2019 World Championships.
Emma Coburn, the current US champion, will compete for medals again this year. Coburn is a consistent medal contender, having won bronze at the Olympics in 2016 and both the world and silver in the world championships in 2017.
At the penultimate Wanda Diamond League meeting before the Olympics, she finished fourth in 9 minutes, 9.02 seconds after falling at the final water jump. Coburn had seen Kiyeng’s misstep from a distance and was beginning to reel in the Kenyan, though there is no certainty Coburn would have won had she remained on her feet. Even so, Coburn will be in the gold hunt if she avoids that error in Tokyo.
Champion performances don’t get much better than those of Gesa-Felicitas Krause. Between his 2015 and 2019 bronze medals at the world championships, the German won two European gold medals in 2016 and 2018. In 9 of her 10 seasons between 2010 and 2019, Krause’s greatest times of the year were set in the championship finals, so it’s likely that she’ll improve upon her current season’s best of 9:09.13 in Tokyo.
After coming up short in the medals at the World Championships in Doha, Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi got some measure of revenge at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in the Qatari capital earlier this year, where she ran a personal best of 9:02.64 and bested Kiyeng, Coburn, and Krause.
Conclusion
Aside from the defending champion, North American record holder, and 2017 world silver medalist Courtney Frerichs, other contenders include the defending champion, Slovenia, and the defending Slovenian record holder.
Records held by Marusa Mismas-Zrimsek, Purity Kirui (2014 Commonwealth champion), Genevieve Gregson (Australia), Zhang Xinyan (China), and Peruth Chemutai (Uganda) were broken. Thanks for read our Article 3000M Steeplechase Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
