1992 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 3000 m obstacle (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	3000 meter obstacle course
gender	Men
Attendees	32 athletes from 24 countries
Competition location	Olympic Stadium Barcelona
Competition phase	August 3, 1992 (preliminary round) August 5, 1992 (semi-finals) August 7, 1992 (final)
Medalist Matthew Birir ( KEN )   Patrick Sang ( KEN )   William Mutwol ( KEN )

The men's 3000 meter obstacle course at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona was held on August 3rd, 5th and 7th, 1992 in three rounds in the Barcelona Olympic Stadium. 32 athletes took part.

The Kenyan team celebrated a triple success. Matthew Birir became Olympic champion, Patrick Sang won silver and William Mutwol won bronze .

Steffen Brand and Hagen Melzer started for Germany . Melzer failed in the semifinals, Brand reached the finals and finished fifth.
The Austrian Michael Buchleitner was eliminated in the preliminary round.
Athletes from Switzerland and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion in 1988	Julius Kariuki ( Kenya )	8: 05.51 min	Seoul 1988
World Champion 1991	Moses Kiptanui ( Kenya )	8: 12.59 min	Tokyo 1991
European champion 1990	Francesco Panetta ( Italy )	8: 12.66 min	Split 1990
Pan American champion 1991	Adauto Domingues ( Brazil )	8: 36.01 min	Havana 1991
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1991	Adalberto Vélez ( Mexico )	9:00 a.m., 20 min	Xalapa 1991
South American Champion 1991	Adauto Domingues ( Brazil )	8: 36.21 min	Manaus 1991
Asian champion 1991	Hamid Sajjadi ( Iran )	8: 33.89 min	Kuala Lumpur 1991
African Champion 1992	Whaddon Niewoudt ( South Africa )	8: 26.44 min	Belle Vue Maurel 1992
Oceania Champion 1990	Duane Humphreys ( New Zealand )	9: 12.83 min	Suva 1990

Existing records

World record	8: 05.35 min	Peter Koech ( Kenya )	Stockholm , Sweden	3rd July 1989
Olympic record	8: 05.51 min	Julius Kariuki ( Kenya )	Final from Seoul , South Korea	September 30, 1988

Preliminary round

Date: August 3, 1992

The participants competed in a total of three preliminary runs. The first six athletes per run qualified for the semifinals. In addition, the six fastest drivers, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified runners are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Forward 1

Abdelaziz Sahere from Morocco , who was registered for the run , did not start.

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	William Mutwol	Kenya	8: 26.23 min
2	Brian Diemer	United States	8: 28.88 min
3	Colin Walker	Great Britain	8: 29.34 min
4th	Steffen Brand	Germany	8: 30.03 min
5	Vladimir Golias	EUN	8: 32.49 min
6th	Thierry Brusseau	France	8: 33.10 min
7th	Ville Hautala	Finland	8: 34.10 min
8th	Michael Buchleitner	Austria	8: 40.46 min
9	Graeme fur	Canada	8: 50.87 min
10	Prakash Davendra Singh	Fiji	9: 07.49 min

Forward 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Matthew Birir	Kenya	8: 23.22 min
2	Clodoaldo do Carmo	Brazil	8: 26.31 min
3	William Van Dijck	Belgium	8: 27.23 min
4th	Azzedine Brahmi	Algeria	8: 28.01 min
5	Tom Buckner	Great Britain	8: 28.36 min
6th	El-Arbi Khattabi	Morocco	8: 28.50 min
7th	Danny Lopez	United States	8: 29.01 min
8th	Hagen Melzer	Germany	8: 31.89 min
9	Mohamed Barak Al-Dosari	Saudi Arabia	8: 50.87 min
10	Ivan Konovalov	EUN	8: 58.04 min
11	Héctor Begeo	Philippines	9: 14.48 min

Forward 3

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Patrick Sang	Kenya	8: 27.01 min
2	Tom Hanlon	Great Britain	8: 27.46 min
3	Ricardo Vera	Uruguay	8: 27.71 min
4th	Mark Croghan	United States	8: 28.15 min
5	Alessandro Lambruschini	Italy	8: 29.64 min
6th	Joseph Mahmoud	France	8: 30.54 min
7th	Whaddon Niewoudt	South Africa South Africa	8: 30.61 min
8th	João Junqueira	Portugal	8: 32.68 min
9	Hamid Sajjadi	Iran	8: 36.87 min
10	Marcelo Cascabelo	Argentina	8: 38.89 min
11	Jamal Abdi Hassan	Qatar	8: 54.98 min

Semifinals

Date: August 5, 1992

The first five athletes of each run qualified for the final. In addition, the two fastest times, the so-called lucky losers , made it through. The directly qualified runners are highlighted in light blue, the lucky losers in light green.

Run 1

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Matthew Birir	Kenya	8: 25.55 min
2	Steffen Brand	Germany	8: 26.12 min
3	Patrick Sang	Kenya	8: 26.46 min
4th	William Van Dijck	Belgium	8: 26.70 min
5	Tom Hanlon	Great Britain	8: 26.91 min
6th	Ricardo Vera	Uruguay	8: 27.46 min
7th	Mark Croghan	United States	8: 30.15 min
8th	Tom Buckner	Great Britain	8: 32.89 min
9	Ville Hautala	Finland	8: 33.69 min
10	João Junqueira	Portugal	8: 39.17 min
11	Danny Lopez	United States	8: 41.28 min
12	Joseph Mahmoud	France	8: 52.00 min

Run 2

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	William Mutwol	Kenya	8: 19.83 min
2	Clodoaldo do Carmo	Brazil	8: 20.46 min
3	Brian Diemer	United States	8: 23.30 min
4th	Alessandro Lambruschini	Italy	8: 23.56 min
5	Azzedine Brahmi	Algeria	8: 25.85 min
6th	El-Arbi Khattabi	Morocco	8: 27.00 min
7th	Vladimir Golias	EUN	8: 30.26 min
8th	Colin Walker	Great Britain	8: 34.82 min
9	Mohamed Barak Al-Dosari	Saudi Arabia	8: 36.38 min
10	Whaddon Niewoudt	South Africa South Africa	8: 37.99 min
11	Hagen Melzer	Germany	8: 38.07 min
12	Thierry Brusseau	France	8: 42.48 min

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Matthew Birir	Kenya	8: 08.84 min
2	Patrick Sang	Kenya	8: 09.55 min
3	William Mutwol	Kenya	8: 10.74 min
4th	Alessandro Lambruschini	Italy	8: 15.52 min
5	Steffen Brand	Germany	8: 16.60 min
6th	Tom Hanlon	Great Britain	8: 18.14 min
7th	Brian Diemer	United States	8: 18.77 min
8th	Azzedine Brahmi	Algeria	8: 20.71 min
9	William Van Dijck	Belgium	8: 22.51 min
10	El-Arbi Khattabi	Morocco	8: 23.82 min
11	Clodoaldo do Carmo	Brazil	8: 25.92 min
12	Ricardo Vera	Uruguay	8: 26.35 min

Date: August 7, 1992

Twelve athletes contested the final: three Kenyans and one runner each from Algeria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Morocco, the USA, Uruguay and Great Britain.

The reigning world champion Moses Kiptanui from Kenya had not been able to qualify for these games in competition with his compatriots. With his world record just two weeks after the 3,000 meter obstacle final , he showed how strong he would have been here in Barcelona . Kenya's dominance in this discipline was great, with Kiptanui's compatriots Matthew Birir, William Mutwol and Patrick Sang as clear favorites for this race. Competitors were above all the Algerian World Cup third Azzedine Brahmi, the European Championship third Alessandro Lambruschini from Italy and the World Cup fifth Brian Diemer from the USA.

In the final, Mutwol was the first to take the initiative. On the second lap he pulled away from the field. Brahmi first caught up with him, but then left a small gap again. But even the runners behind only allowed a small gap. The first thousand meters were run in 2: 44.86 minutes - a very brisk, but not particularly fast pace. The field was opening up again. Mutwol ran a very restless pace at the front, there was always this small gap, which was then closed again. In the third lap, Birir fell on an obstacle, but immediately got up again and placed himself in the middle of the field. From lap four the three Kenyans controlled the race from the front. Birir was still there without any problems. The second kilometer was completed in 2: 47.00 minutes, almost as fast as the first. On the penultimate lap, the three Kenyans with Lambruschini in tow pulled away from the rest of the field, Birir led ahead of Sang. At the beginning of the final round, the Italian had already been dealt with, Birir, Sang and Mutwol now settled it among themselves. In the end, Matthew Birir clearly prevailed and was Olympic champion ahead of Patrick Sang and William Mutwol. Alessandro Lambruschini was fourth in front of the surprisingly strong German Steffen Brand and the British Tom Hanlon.

With a very fast last kilometer in 2: 36.98 minutes, the end time was just three and a half seconds above the existing world record set by Kenyan Peter Koech in 1989.

Matthew Birir won the third consecutive gold medal for Kenya in the discipline. It was the fifth overall, making Kenya the most successful nation based on Olympic victories. For the third time after 1928 by Finland and 1948 by Sweden, all three medals went to one nation.

Web links

• SportsReference 3000 m obstacle , accessed February 8, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Barcelona , athletics results: p. 47, Catalan / Spanish / English / French (PDF, 38.871 MB), accessed on February 8, 2018

Video

• Men's 3000m Steeplechase Final Barcelona Olympics 1992 , published November 9, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed February 8, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015 page 674 , accessed on February 8, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Official report on the Olympic Games in Barcelona , athletics results: p. 47, Catalan / Spanish / English / French (PDF, 38.871 MB), accessed on February 8, 2018