2017 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 3000 metres steeplechase


The women's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held at the London Olympic Stadium on 9 and 11 August.

Summary

Kenya had six entrants in the race, the three normally allowed including the number one runner in 2017 Celliphine Chepteek Chespol, plus defending champion Hyvin Jepkemoi and two expatriates; Winfred Mutile Yavi and world record holder / Olympic champion Ruth Jebet who were running for Bahrain. From the gun in the final Beatrice Chepkoech went to the front.
There is a partial lap at the beginning of all steeplechase events, that distance is variable depending on the construction of the steeplechase facilities at that track. The runners begin going over the barriers including the water jump when there are seven laps to go.
After going over the first two barriers, Chepkoech continued to run the track instead of cutting off to the water with the leaders, mostly Kenyans and the two Bahraini runners starting to follow her. The others realized the mistake and ran through the water, Chepkoech ran past the water on the track then had to circle back to go over the water, dropping her well behind the field. Out of the chaos, Yavi took the lead with Chepkoech rushing to catch up. Later in the second lap, Purity Cherotich Kirui stumbled after a barrier with two other athletes falling over her body on the track, suddenly this caused a six-woman breakaway. Jebet took over the lead and pushed the pace but hard running by Chepkoech managed to bridge the gap, while Yavi fell off the group shortly afterward. Jebet led Chespol, Jepkemoi, Chepkoech, plus Americans Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs tagging on the back through two more laps.
On the backstretch with less than two laps to go, Coburn moved forward to challenge the Kenyans and Chespol dropped off the pace. At the bell, being challenged by Coburn and Chepkoech, Jebet began to drop back. Down the final backstretch it was four athletes shoulder to shoulder across the track, the Kenyans on the inside and the Americans on the outside. Out of that, Jepkemoi emerged in the lead with Frerichs on her outer shoulder and Coburn a step behind. After the hard comeback, Chepkoech faded. Entering the final water jump, Jepkemoi took the turn wide and smoothly with Frerichs following, but Coburn cut sharply and took the inside line through the water jump, emerging with a two-metre lead over Frerichs who had a step on Jepkemoi. With free running room down the home stretch, Coburn opened up another seven metres on Frerichs who opened up another metre on Jepkemoi.
Coburn's 9:02.58 was a Continental record, the Championship record and improved her position to number six on the all-time list, one ahead of Frerichs. Four of the five athletes ahead of them on that list finished behind them in this race.

Records

Before the competition records were as follows:
RecordAthleteDateLocation
World record8:52.78Ruth Jebet27 Aug 2016Saint-Denis, France
Championship9:06.57Yekaterina Volkova27 Aug 2007Osaka, Japan
World leading8:58.78Celliphine Chepteek ChespolEugene, United States
African8:58.78Celliphine Chepteek ChespolEugene, United States
Asian8:52.78Ruth Jebet27 Aug 2016Saint-Denis, France
NACAC9:07.63Emma Coburn15 Aug 2016Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
South American9:38.63Juliana Paula dos Santos6 Jun 2016Prague, Czech Republic
European8:58.81Gulnara Samitova-Galkina17 Aug 2008Beijing, China
Oceanian9:14.28Genevieve Lacaze27 Aug 2016Saint-Denis, France

The following records were set at the competition:
RecordAthleteDate
Championship9:02.58Emma Coburn11 Aug 2017
NACAC9:02.58Emma Coburn11 Aug 2017
American9:02.58Emma Coburn11 Aug 2017
South American9:35.78Belén Casetta9 Aug 2017
South American9:25.99Belén Casetta11 Aug 2017
Canadian9:29.99Geneviève Lalonde11 Aug 2017
Canadian-Geneviève Lalonde-

Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 9:42.00.

Schedule

The event schedule, in local time, is as follows:
DateTimeRound
9 August19:05Heats
11 August21:25Final

Results

Heats

The first round took place on 9 August in three heats as follows:
Heat123
Start time19:0519:2219:40
Photo finish

The first three in each heat and the next six fastest qualified for the final. The overall results were as follows:
RankHeatNameNationalityTimeNotes
12Beatrice Chepkoech9:19.03
22Ruth Jebet9:19.52
32Courtney Frerichs9:25.14
42Aisha Praught9:26.37
53Celliphine Chepteek Chespol9:27.35
63Emma Coburn9:27.42
73Genevieve LaCaze9:27.53,
83Winfred Mutile Yavi9:28.00
92Geneviève Lalonde9:31.81,
103Etenesh Diro9:31.87
112Birtukan Fente9:33.99,
123Belén Casetta9:35.78,
133Fabienne Schlumpf9:36.08
142Özlem Kaya9:37.06
151Gesa Felicitas Krause9:39.86
161Hyvin Jepkemoi9:39.89
171Purity Cherotich Kirui9:40.53
181Fadwa Sidi Madane9:40.61
191Sofia Assefa9:40.88
203Peruth Chemutai9:43.04
212Anna Emilie Møller9:44.12
221Irene Sánchez-Escribano9:46.59
232Maria Larsson9:48.13
241Maeva Danois9:49.21
253Rosie Clarke9:49.36
261Alycia Butterworth9:51.50
273Viktória Gyürkés9:52.66
282Amina Bettiche9:53.06
291Mariya Shatalova9:54.21
301Lennie Waite9:54.97
311Tigest Getent9:55.42
323Maria Bernard9:59.45
332Victoria Mitchell
343Francesca Bertoni
353María José Pérez
362Camilla Richardsson
371Lucie Sekanová
383Tuğba Güvenç
391Charlotta Fougberg
402Teresa Urbina
1Colleen Quigley
2Luiza Gega

Final

The final took place on 11 August at 21:25. The results were as follows:
RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
Emma Coburn9:02.58,
Courtney Frerichs9:03.77
Hyvin Jepkemoi9:04.03
Beatrice Chepkoech9:10.45
Ruth Jebet9:13.96
Celliphine Chepteek Chespol9:15.04
Etenesh Diro9:22.46
Winfred Mutile Yavi9:22.67
Gesa Felicitas Krause9:23.87
10Purity Cherotich Kirui9:25.62
11Belén Casetta9:25.99'
12Genevieve LaCaze9:26.25
13Geneviève Lalonde9:29.99'
Aisha Praught
Birtukan Fente