Eugene, July 18: If ever one race could raise awareness about distance running in India many times over, the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 men’s 3000m Steeplechase final at the Hayward Field on Monday may qualify ahead of all else. Many would realise that personal best times of athletes have little bearing in such tactical races.
As was the case with those who expected Avinash Sable to shake the world’s best after he improved his own National Record to 8:12.48 in the Diamond League in Rabat, Morocco on June 5 this year. When he finished 11th in 8:31.75, the waves of disappointment in the minds of Indian fans were quickly evident.
Kenya’s Conseslus Kipruto, eager to defend his title admitted he was the one controlling the pace. “That was my plan. I wanted it to be slow because I believe in myself when it comes to the last kick. I faced some challenges in the last lap and could not sprint as I wanted. But that’s part of sports, when you face challenges,” he said as he was outrun by el Bakkali and Girma.
In what turned out to be the slowest men’s 3000m Steeplechase in the history of World Athletics, every runner was waiting for someone else to set the pace. And that did not happen until the bell when the front-runners Lamecha Girma, Olympic champion Soufiane el Bakkali and Conseslus Kipruto took off.
American Evan Jager called the race super messy. “I thought Girma wanted a fast pace to try to shake Bakkali. We assumed it was going to get superfast. I wish I could have positioned differently going with a lap to go, but everyone had so much energy left that it was hard to make those moves to get into those places and fight people off at the same time,” he said.
Indeed, overtaking was never going to be easy when 15 runners were bunched together through the race. Avinash Sable was stuck at the tail end of a traffic jam as it were. He was 6.62 seconds off the Moroccan winner Soufiane el Bakkali’s time and the last man, Kenya’s Leonard Kipkemboi – with a personal best of 8:08.61 – was a further 4.99 seconds behind the Indian.
Truth to tell, only el Bakkali had the resources of strength, speed and stamina to move up from 12th spot with two laps to go to position himself for that sprint over the final 300m. Till about 2km in the race, Sable kept ek Bakkali and Lamecha Girma’s company (as seen in the photo above). Had the Indian continued to tag along when the Moroccan and the Ethiopian found their way up the ranks, he may have been able to secure a better position than the 11th but he was unable to change gears so quickly.
Away from the 3000m Steeplechase final, there was quite some magic on the field. Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas and Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim produced the world’s best efforts this year to complete a hat-trick of women’s Triple Jump and men’s High Jump titles respectively. Their ability to shut everything else off their mind and focus on doing their best was in evidence.
“It still hasn’t sunk in yet. I wanted a longer jump. I came with the goal to get closer to my world record. The wind affected my run-up. I tried to adjust, but the most important thing was to win the medal and stay consistent over 15m. More championships will come, and I hope to continue adding titles to my country. Every meet, big or small, is a challenge,” Rojas said.
Mutaz Essa Barshim gave up his quest for the world record, set by Javier Sotomayor at 2.45m way back in July 1993, after failing once to clear the Championship record height of 2.42m. With challenger Korea’s Sanghyeok Woo’s best being 2.35m, the efficient 31-year-old Qatari was crowned winner again.
“The target for me for today was gold medal, if even the World Record is the only one thing I still miss. Three world gold in-a-row has never have been done before. I came here to secure that. I feel I have a name in our sports, but I have been never felt like a greatest one in the field,” he said, showing the humility that has always been part of his countenance.
The results (finals):
Men
3000m steeplechase: 1. Soufiane el Bakkali (Morocco) 8:2513; 2. Lamecha Girma (Ethiopia) 8:26.01; 3. Conseslus Kipruto (Kenya) 8:27.92.
High Jump: 1. Mutaz Essa Barshim (Qatar) 2.37m; 2. Sanghyeok Woo (Korea) 2.35; 3. Andriy Protsenko (Ukraine) 2.33.
Women
1500m: 1. Faith Kipyegon (Kenya) 3:52.96; 2. Gudaf Tsegay (Ethiopia) 3:54.52; 3. Laura Muir (Britain) 3:55.28.
Marathon: 1. Gotytom Gebreselase (Ethiopia) 2:18:11 (New World Championships record. Old: 2:20.57, Paula Radcliffe, Britain, Finland, Aug 14, 2005); 2. Judith Jeptum Korir (Kenya) 2:18:20; 3. Lonah Chemtai Salpeter (Israel) 2:20:18.
Triple Jump: 1. Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela) 15.47m; 2. Shanieka Ricketts (Jamaica) 14.89; 3. Tori Franklin (USA) 14.72.
Heptathlon: 1. Nafiassatou Thiam (Belgium) 6947 points (100mH: 13.21; HJ: 1.95; SP: 15.03; 200m: 24.39; lJ: 6.59; JT: 53.01; 800: 2:13.00); 2. Anouk Vetter (Netherlands) 6867; 3. Anna Hall (USA) 6755.
