L. MathekaYet another season of Kenya's steeplechase strangulation
Reading Time: 3min | Thu. 29.12.22. | 20:30
No Kenyan man won any Diamond League races in the discipline
As the World Athletics 2022 season comes to a close, Kenya's athletics family will have a bone to chew when it comes to the 3000m steeplechase performance.
2022 was yet another year that the country struggled to reclaim glory on the international scene in the discipline that was for long considered sort of a Kenyan birthright.
After losing the Olympics Games gold for the first time in decades during the 2021 Tokyo Games, Kenya continued to suffer defeat on the international stage with the final world rankings for the season placing Commonwealth Games champion Abraham Kibiwot fourth as the top placed Kenyan in the 2022 season.
Kibiwot was Kenya’s fastest steeplechaser this year, his 8:06.73 season’s best placing him fourth on the world list this year.
He won just one race outside of Kenya, taking Commonwealth gold in 8:11.15, but he was pushed all the way by India’s Avinash Sable, who was rewarded with a national record of 8:11.20.
#TeamKenya's grip on the steeplechase continues to be shaken ðŸ˜
— Warothe Kiru (@warothe) August 6, 2022
The Olympic title went, World title went and now a run of 6 clean steeplechase sweeps at the Commonwealth Games has ended.
Current crop of male 🇰🇪 steeplechasers and the coaches have dropped the ball. How to fix?
Geoffrey Kirwa was the country’s top finisher at the African Championships, placing third behind Ethiopia’s Hailemariyam Amare and Tadese Takele.
Multiple global champion Conseslus Kipruto made a good comeback to finish third at the World Championships giving Kenyans some hope in a generally frustrating year for Kenyan athletes in an event they have dominated for decades.
Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali, continued his dominance as he won another global gold in 2022, this time the world title in Oregon.
Olympic champion El Bakkali storms to world steeplechase gold in Oregon. El Bakkali’s win in 8:25.13, snapped Kenya’s streak of seven consecutive world titles in the event, including Conseslus Kipruto’s run of two straight championships. pic.twitter.com/awi3IaNiqE
— Track And Field News (@totaltrackinfo) July 19, 2022
The Moroccan went undefeated for the entire season. Only world and Olympic silver medallist Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia came close to beating El Bakkali at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha in mid-May, the latter winning by just 0.0.
It was the first, and closest, of three clashes between the pair as El Bakkali went on to win in Rabat in a world-leading 7:28.28, one second ahead of Girma, and then took the world title in Oregon in 8:25.13, Girma taking his fourth global silver medal in 8:26.01.
El Bakkali capped his season with wins in Lausanne and at the Diamond League Final, before going on to set an African 2000m steeplechase record of 5:14.06 in Zagreb.
Although Girma played second fiddle to El Bakkali throughout the year, the Ethiopian still made a piece of history.
After setting a national record of 7:58.68 in Ostrava and finishing second in Rabat, he won in Rome in 7:59.23. No other steeplechaser in history has recorded three sub-eight-minute performances within such a short timeframe (nine days).
Finland’s Topi Raitanen (Europeans, 8:21.80) and USA’s returning Evan Jager (NACAC, 8:22.55) were the winners of other continental titles this year.
A total of 36 men ran faster than 8:20 this year, just one away from the record depth (37 in 2005). Among those 36 men, 15 different countries from five continental areas are represented.
Additional reporting by World Athletics
