Moroccan surprise in steeplechase ends Kenya’s golden run
NEW DELHI: At every Olympics, there are a few golds that are as good as decided. The personnel change but not the winners’ nationalities. One such script was torn up at the rainswept Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Monday evening.
Kenya were denied victory in the 3,000m steeplechase in the biggest track upset of these Games for their sheer history of dominance, ending a run of victories in nine consecutive Olympics starting with Los Angeles 1984. Kenya’s vice-like grip on the event can be gauged from the fact that they won the previous 11 times they entered the event, going back to Mexico 1968. Kenya didn’t enter the 1976 Montreal and 1980 Moscow Games.
The last time Kenya entered the 3000m steeplechase and did not finish first was at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, 57 years ago.
So, when Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali timed his late surge to perfection, winning the tactical race in a slow 8:08.90, an empire fell in the world of track.
El Bakkali was tucked behind as the race unfolded with the Kenyans and their fierce east African rivals from Ethiopia, three runners apiece, jockeying up front. The 25-year-old El Bakkali made his decisive move at the final water hurdle and finished clearly ahead of Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma with Kenya’s Benjamin Kigen taking bronze.
Since Kenya’s distance runners took the Olympics athletics by storm at the altitude of the 1968 Mexico Games, their team tactics had made it impossible for their rivals to break through. Ethiopia led the counter offensive with victories in other distance events, but steeplechase remained Kenya’s last bastion.
El Bakkali though was in contention for a historic upset in the absence of Kenya’s 2016 Rio champion Conseslus Kipruto. He has been growing in stature. He came second behind Kipruto at the 2017 London World Championships and took bronze at the 2019 Doha worlds.
“I’m so used to seeing Kenyans win, it’s a big accomplishment for me. I have been aiming for this for years and this was my opportunity to show that Morocco is capable of winning this prize,” El Bakkali was quoted as saying in the Tokyo Games website.
“I have been thinking about being more confident and also trusting that I can win. I have tried so many times to compare myself with the Kenyans and Ethiopians to see whether I could reach this gold, and I did.”