Kenya’s envious steeplechase tradition still under big threat

Will Kenya jealously defend their men’s 3,000 metres steeplechase tradition at the World Athletics Championships?

That is the question after the country painfully saw its Olympic dominance of over three decades shattered at last year’s Summer Games in Tokyo.

There were warning signs when Conselsus Kipruto had to dip out to beat Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma at the line to defend his title during the 2019 World Athletics Championships.

That ensured Kenya retained the title for seventh consecutive edition as Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali came in third for bronze.

Then came the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic last year when El Bakkali broke Kenyans’ hearts to win the title as Girma settled for silver with Kenya’s Benjamin Kigen bagging bronze.

Most successful Kenyan

That effectively ended Kenya’s 38-year reign at the Olympics that Julius Korir installed at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Kenya had won nine successive editions with legendary Ezekiel Kemboi claiming two titles.

Kemboi is the most successful Kenyan in the steeplechase at the world championships, having won it four times back-top-back in 2009 (Berlin), 2011 (Daegu), 2013 (Moscow) and 2017 (London).

From the 17 editions of the world event, Kenya have starred to win in 13 of them with Moses Kiptanui bagging the first of his three world titles in 1991.

The only time Kenya missed out was when Kenyan-born Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar won in 2003 and 2005.

Once again, El Bakkali and Girma stand between Kenya and glory in the final at 5.20am Tuesday morning.

El Bakkali and Girma won the first and second semi-finals in 8:16.65 and 8:19.64, respectively, with another Ethiopian, Hailemariyam Amare, winning the third semi-final in 8:18.34.

Kenyans Leonard Bett and Abraham Kibiwott finished behind El Bakkali in second and third places in 8:16.94 and 8:17.04 respectively while Kipruto finished behind Girma in 8:20.12.

With a slow race seemingly going to favour Kenyans, Kipruto seems to have regained his form although he isn’t as sharp as he was when winning in 2017 London and 2019 Doha.

Kipruto has beaten El Bakkali in eight of their 11 meetings with five of them coming in championship races. Bett and Kibiwott have been blowing hot and cold hence raising eyebrows on whether they can put up a firm defence.

Girma, who is out to give Ethiopia their maiden title, has raced El Bakkali seven times in his career and has only beaten him once in the 2019 world final.

The heavy favourite

Undoubtedly, El Bakkali starts as the heavy favourite having outsprinted Girma in Tokyo last year to win Olympic gold and doing the same in the Doha and Rabat Diamond League meetings this year, setting the world lead of 7:58.28 in the latter event.

American Evan Jager, who claimed silver at the 2016 Olympic and bronze at 2017 World Championships, and Kenyan born Hilary Bor will be out to stop the Africans from ruining their party at home.

However, since 2017, Jager has had a bad spell and only showed signs of a return when he finished second behind Bor in 8:17.29 at the US Championships last month.

Bor was seventh in the Olympic final in 2016 and eighth in the world final in 2019 and has a season’s best time of 8:12.19 this year.