Paris Olympics 2024: Bahrain's Winfred Yavi claims gold in women's 3000m steeplechase

Winfred Yavi broke a 16-year-old Olympic record in the event at Paris.

Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi won the deepest women’s 3000m steeplechase race in history to add the Olympic title to her world crown at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Tuesday. Running 8:52.76, the 24-year-old smashed an Olympic record that had been set when the discipline made its Games debut for women in 2008, denying Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai a second consecutive Olympic victory.

Chemutai held on to secure silver this time in a national record of 8:53.34, while Kenya’s Faith Cherotich got bronze in a PB of 8:55.15 – a second global senior medal for the 20-year-old after her bronze at the World Championships in Budapest last year.

To huge cheers from the home crowd, France’s Alice Finot finished fourth in a European record of 8:58.67. It is the first time that four women have gone sub-nine minutes in the same race, with best marks-for-place for third through to 12th.

“This is a dream come true. It has been such a hard journey to get to this point,” said Winfred Yavi. “In the final I was expecting something good. I just felt good about the race. I believed in myself, that I had that finishing speed.”

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It was Kenya’s world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech who took control of the race early on and it was fast from the start as she led from Chemutai, Cherotich, Ethiopia’s Sembo Almayew and Winfred Yavi, hitting the first kilometre mark in 2:55.1. Finot was a couple of seconds back, with the field strung out.

Almayew moved up with four laps to go and applied some pressure, with a breakaway group of five – Chepkoech, Chemutai, Almayew, Cherotich and Winfred Yavi – soon forming.

Chemutai was to the fore with three laps remaining and that’s where she stayed, until the home straight. At the bell she led from Chepkoech and Winfred Yavi but the world record-holder couldn’t hold on and Cherotich passed her Kenyan teammate down the back straight. 

As Chemutai gritted her teeth, hoping to become the first two-time Olympic champion in the discipline, she was passed by Winfred Yavi and settled for silver as her rival ran away with the gold.

Winfred Yavi’s winning time of 8:52.76 is the fourth fastest performance of all time – a mark that only she and Chepkoech have ever bettered. Chepkoech set her world record of 8:44.32 in Monaco in 2018, while Yavi ran 8:50.66 to win ahead of Chepkoech (8:51.67) in Eugene last September.

They were followed over the finish line in Paris by Cherotich, Finot, Almayew (9:00.83) and Chepkoech (9:04.24) as the top 10 all went sub-9:10.00. Elizabeth Bird set a British record of 9:04.35 in seventh place, while Ethiopia’s Lomi Muleta was eighth, Kazakhstan’s Norah Jeruto was ninth and Germany’s Lea Meyer 10th.

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