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 2024 Games on Tuesday (6).
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 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.”
