Bahrain's Yavi wins steeplechase gold at Paris Olympics

Winfred Yavi of Team Bahrain celebrates winning the gold medal after competing in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase Final on day eleven of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France in Paris, France on August 06, 2024 [Mustafa Yalçın – Anadolu Agency]

Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi won the women’s Olympic 3,000 metres steeplechase gold medal yesterday, dethroning Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai who had to settle for silver, Reuters reports.

Yavi jumped for joy after crossing the line, having overtaken Chemutai with an explosive final sprint that left the Ugandan who had led most of the race unable to respond.

Chemutai was in shock after Yavi, 24, stole the finish to add the Olympic title to last year’s world championship, setting an Olympic record time of 8 minutes 52.76 seconds.

“This is like a dream come true. It’s something special,” Yavi told reporters. “It means a lot to me and also to the country.”

Kenyan 20-year-old Faith Cherotich, ranked third in the world, claimed bronze on her Olympic debut.

Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech took an early lead and was shoulder-to-shoulder with Chemutai but faded in the last lap and ended sixth, while France’s Alice Finot celebrated her fourth-place finish in a very fast race.

READ: Algeria’s Khelif reaches Olympics boxing final

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.