PARIS 2024: Kenyan Athletes aim for redemption as athletics enters day 7

Faith Cherotich’s bronze medal in the women’s 3 000 metres steeplechase on Tuesday night served as Kenya’s consolation prize on a disappointing day where Timothy Cheruiyot and Brian Komen finished in last two positions of the men’s 1 500 metres final, and Beatrice Chepkoech, the world record holder in women’s 3 000 metres steeplechase, finished sixth in her event.

Kenya goes again to the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, today with hopes of putting behind Tuesday night’s disappointments as the trio of Abraham Kibiwot, Amos Serem, and Simon Koech will aim to wrestle back the country’s dominance of the men’s 3000 steeplechase race, whose final bring down the curtain on today’s action in the athletics program for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The final starts at 10:43 pm EAT.

Kenya won nine consecutive gold medals in the event at the Olympic Games between 1984 and 2016 but that proud run was ended in Tokyo three years when the Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali won the gold medal with Kenya consoling itself with Benjamin Kigen’s bronze medal after the American Evan Jager scooped silver.

Before Tokyo 2020, the previous occasion Kenya did not win the gold medal in the steeplechase was in Moscow 1980, which Kenya boycotted. Kenya also boycotted the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games meaning that the country could not defend Kipchoge Keino’s gold medal in the event which he won in Munich 1972.

The historic Olympic Games of Mexico City 1968, when Kenya won its first ever gold medal at the Olympics with Naftali Temu’s victory in the 10 000 metres, was the first time Kenya won the gold medal in the men’s steeplechase with Amos Biwott’s victory that time pioneering the country’s dominance of the event.

Such was Kenya’s strong grip on the men’s steeplechase that it won the event with clean sweeps of the medal podium in 1992 and 2004 and registered five 1-2 finishes (1968, 1972, 1988, 1996, and 2000). On two occasions, 2008 and 2012, Kenya won the gold and bronze medals in the event. It was only in 1984 (Julius Korir) and 2016 (Conceslus Kipruto) that Kenya won only the gold medal in the event.

Whether this illustrious history will be incarnated today can only wait to be seen because for all their best efforts in qualifying for the final, Abraham Kibiwot, Amos Serem, and Simon Koech will be up against stiff competition from Morocco’s El Bakkali, who is the reigning world and Olympic champion, and the Ethiopian Lamecha Girma, the world record holder in the event.

Other dark horses in the event include the Ethiopian duo of Getnet Wale and Samuel Firewu, El Bakkali’s compatriot Mohamed Tindouft, the Ugandan Leonard Chemutai, and the American Kenneth Rooks.

Kibiwot, Koech, and Serem have to get their tactics spot on if they are to dominate opposition that has been pushing Kenya out of its staple event. A whole nation holds its breath.

The men’s steeplechase will be the main highlight of the evening schedule which will also feature an appearance by Kenya’s 400 metres hurdler, Wiseman Mukhobe Were.

Mukhobe will feature in the semifinals of the event which is scheduled to start at 8:35 pm EAT but he will not race until 8:51 pm EAT when his semifinal, the third and final one of the night, starts.

To qualify for the final, the 26-year old will aim to be among the top two finishers in his heat or register one of the two fastest times for athletes who rank outside the top two in their heat races.

Also in action today for Team Kenya, are its representatives in the men’s 800 metres and men’s 5 000 metres who will feature in the morning schedule when the qualifying heats for the two events will take place.

The country cohort of the men’s 5 000 metres – Jacob Krop, Edwin Kurgat, and Ronald Kwemoi – will go first, with at least one featuring in the event’s two Round One heats.

Krop and Kurgat will compete in the first heat which will start at 12:10 pm EAT. Kwemoi will race in the second heat which is scheduled to start at 12:30 pm EAT.

The top eight finishers in each heat will qualify for the final where the world is certain to witness the crowing of a new Olympic champion in the event following the withdrawal of the event’s reigning champion Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda and his formidable teammate Jacob Kiplimo due to failing to recover fully from last Friday’s brutally fast 10 000 metres, which Cheptegei won with an Olympic record of 26:43.14 as all the race’s first 13 finishers went below the previous Olympic record for the event of 27:01.07 set by the Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele in Beijing 2008.

Cheptegei and Kiplimo announced their withdrawal from the event on Tuesday, with a statement released on Twitter (X) by the Uganda Athletics Federation saying, “The event (Friday’s 10 000 metres final) left them (Cheptegei and Kiplimo) fatigued with legs and arms muscle pains. Efforts by the physio teams to resuscitate the athletes to their full normal form have not been successful.”

In the duo’s absence, Oscar Chelimo will be tasked with flying Uganda’s flag.

Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Koitatoi Kidali, and Wycliffe Kinyamal will complete the morning program for Kenya as they compete in different heats in the men’s 800 metres, an event that will also witness the emergence of a new Olympic champion as Kenya’s Emmanuel Kipkorir, who won the event in Tokyo three years, did not qualify this time.

The event features six heats in Round One with the first three qualifying automatically for the finals. Those who do not rank in the top three of their heats will have to contest a repechage round in order to clinch one of the remaining six semifinal slots.

The heats of the men’s 800 metres will start at 12:55 pm EAT but the first Kenyan will not race until 13:03 pm EAT when Kidali competes in Heat Two. Wanyonyi will follow him in Heat Three which starts at 13:11 pm EAT. Kinyamal will race in Heat Five which will start at 13:27 pm EAT.