OREGON22: El Bakkali takes steeplechase gold as Kipruto settles for bronze

For the first time in the history of the World Athletics Championships, the men's 3000m steeplechase title has been won by a an athlete with no Kenyan roots. 

Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali clocked 8:25.13 to set another record of becoming the first non-Kenyan to hold both the Olympic and world titles in the distance. 

He celebrated with a little dance, before spreading the flag over his legs on the track and using his medal for a lovely guitar gesture. Moments later, it was tears of joy for the Moroccan. 

For the second time, Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma could not muster the speed nor tactics to deliver gold for Ethiopia, denied by the Moroccan just as he was by Conseslus Kipruto in the 2019 championship held in Doha.

Girma clocked 8:26.01 for silver as the defending champion, Kipruto bagged his third world championship medal with bronze. 

The other Kenyan representatives Abraham Kibiwott finished fifth while Leonard Bett who fell earlier on in the race could not recover in time, finishing last. 

Since 1991, and the first of Moses Kiptanui’s three world titles, Kenya has won 13 of the 15 men’s steeplechase gold medals, the two exceptions being 2003 and 2005, when Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Stephen Cherono), a Kenyan-born athlete running for Qatar claimed gold.

It was touted to be one of the races of the championship and true to the words, if lived up to the biling. 

They had a slow 2.57 in the first kilometre, a slow pace going by the standards of the men on the field. Spain's Sebastián Martos had led for the first kilometre. 

Kipruto and Wale pressed to the front but the field stayed tight as and stayed cagey all the way through to the bell. 

El Bakkali, who had stayed at the middle of the pack for the better part of the race started moving forward with 600m to go and his killer kick propelled him to be the first non-Kenyan to win the world athletics championship gold in the distance.