2004 Summer Olympics / Athletics - 3000 m obstacle (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	3000 meter obstacle course
gender	Men
Attendees	39 athletes from 25 countries
Competition location	Athens Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 21, 2004 (preliminary round) ; August 24, 2004 (final)
	Medalist
	Ezekiel Kemboi ( KEN )
	Brimin Kipruto ( KEN )
	Paul Kipsiele Koech ( KEN )

The men's 3000 meter obstacle course at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was held on August 21 and 24, 2004 in the Athens Olympic Stadium. 39 athletes took part.

All medals went to runners from Kenya. Olympic champion was Ezekiel Kemboi ahead of Brimin Kipruto and Paul Kipsiele Koech .

For Austria, Martin Pröll , who was eliminated in the preliminary round, started.
Athletes from Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic Champion 2000	Reuben Kosgei ( Kenya ) Kenya	8: 21.43 min	Sydney 2000
World Champion 2003	Saif Saaeed Shaheen ( Qatar ) Qatar	8: 04.39 min	Paris 2003
European Champion 2002	Antonio David Jiménez ( Spain ) Spain	8: 24.34 min	Munich 2002
Pan American Champion 2003	Néstor Nieves ( Venezuela ) Venezuela 1954	8: 34.26 min	Santo Domingo 2003
Central America and Caribbean champions 2003	3000 m obstacle not held as a championship competition		St. George’s 2003
South American Champion 2003	Néstor Nieves ( Venezuela ) Venezuela 1954	8: 46.41 min	Barquisimeto 2003
Asian champion 2003	Khamis Abdullah Saifeldin ( Qatar ) Qatar	8: 51.60 min	Manila 2003
African champion 2004	David Chemweno ( Kenya ) Kenya	8: 17.31 min	Brazzaville 2004
Oceania Champion 2002	Neville Smith ( New Zealand ) New Zealand	9: 47.07 min	Christchurch 2002

Existing records

World record	7: 55.28 min	Brahim Boulami ( Morocco ) Morocco	Brussels , Belgium	August 24, 2001
Olympic record	8: 05.51 min	Julius Kariuki ( Kenya ) Kenya	Final from Seoul , South Korea	September 30, 1988

Note: All times are given in Athens local time ( UTC + 2 ).

Preliminary round

A total of three preliminary runs were completed. The first three athletes of each run qualified for the final. 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

Ivan Lukjanow from Moldova was ninth in his lead and was eliminated

The Slovenian Boštjan Buč was eliminated as tenth of his preliminary run

August 21, 2004, 10:05 p.m.

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Khamis Abdullah Saifeldin	Qatar Qatar	8: 17.89
2	Ezekiel Kemboi	Kenya Kenya	8: 18.20
3	Bouabdellah Tahri	France France	8: 18.98
4th	Daniel Lincoln	United States United States	8: 19.62
5	Ali Ezzine	Morocco Morocco	8: 20.18
6th	Eliseo Martín	Spain Spain	8: 21.88
7th	Radosław Popławski	Poland Poland	8: 22.16
8th	Martin Pröll	Austria Austria	8: 26.01
9	Ivan Lukyanov	Moldova Republic Moldova	8: 26.17	NO
10	Boštjan Buč	Slovenia Slovenia	8: 37.29
11	Pavel Potapovich	Russia Russia	8: 52.65
DNF	Giuseppe Maffei	Italy Italy
DNS	Roberto Mandje	Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea
DNS	Lotfi Turki	Tunisia Tunisia

Forward 2

August 21, 2004, 10:18 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)	annotation
1	Brimin Kipruto	Kenya Kenya	8: 15.11
2	Simon Vroemen	Netherlands Netherlands	8: 15.28
3	Luis Miguel Martín	Spain Spain	8: 16.90
4th	Mustafa Mohamed	Sweden Sweden	8: 19.37
5	Vincent Le Dauphin	France France	8: 20.13
6th	Jan Zakrzewski	Poland Poland	8: 23.72
7th	Roman Usow	Russia Russia	8: 24.19
8th	Wadym Slobodenjuk	Ukraine Ukraine	8: 24.84
9	Abdelatif Chemlal	Morocco Morocco	8: 29.36
10	Tewodros Shiferaw	Ethiopia 1996 Ethiopia	8: 33.15
11	Abdelhakim Maazouz	Algeria Algeria	8: 36.12
12	Robert Gary	United States United States	8: 38.01
13	Ruben Ramolefi	South Africa South Africa	8: 46.17
14th	Bashir Ibrahim	Kuwait Kuwait	8: 48.65	NO

Forward 3

August 21, 2004, 10:31 pm

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Musa Amer Obaid	Qatar Qatar	8: 23.94
2	Antonio David Jimenez	Spain Spain	8: 24.13
3	Paul Kipsiele Koech	Kenya Kenya	8: 24.98
4th	Zouhair Ouerdi	Morocco Morocco	8: 27.55
5	Justin Chaston	United Kingdom Great Britain	8: 28.35
6th	Yoshitaka Iwamizu	Japan Japan	8: 29.07
7th	Peter Nowill	Australia Australia	8: 29.14
8th	Anthony Famiglietti	United States United States	8: 31.59
9	Alexander Greaux	Puerto Rico Puerto Rico	8: 33.62
10	Jim Svenøy	Norway Norway	8: 33.97
11	Manuel da Silva	Portugal Portugal	8: 38.31
12	Luleseged whales	Ethiopia 1996 Ethiopia	8: 50.73
13	Jakub Czaja	Poland Poland	8: 56.24

final

space	Surname	nation	Time (min)
1	Ezekiel Kemboi	Kenya Kenya	8: 05.81
2	Brimin Kipruto	Kenya Kenya	8: 06.11
3	Paul Kipsiele Koech	Kenya Kenya	8: 06.64
4th	Musa Amer Obaid	Qatar Qatar	8: 07.18
5	Luis Miguel Martín	Spain Spain	8: 11.64
6th	Simon Vroemen	Netherlands Netherlands	8: 13.25
7th	Bouabdellah Tahri	France France	8: 14.26
8th	Ali Ezzine	Morocco Morocco	8: 15.58
9	Eliseo Martín	Spain Spain	8: 15.77
10	Vincent Le Dauphin	France France	8: 16.15
11	Daniel Lincoln	United States United States	8: 16.86
12	Radosław Popławski	Poland Poland	8: 17.32
13	Mustafa Mohamed	Sweden Sweden	8: 18.05
14th	Antonio David Jimenez	Spain Spain	8: 22.63
15th	Khamis Abdullah Saifeldin	Qatar Qatar	8: 36.66

August 24, 2004, 9:40 pm

All three Kenyans and all three Spaniards as well as two French and two runners from Qatar had qualified for the final. The starting field was completed by one participant each from Morocco, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the USA.

The clear favorite would actually have been Saif Saaeed Shaheen, who started for Qatar in 2002 . He had adopted Qatar's citizenship after previously running under his maiden name Stephen Cherono for his native Kenya. Under his new name he became world champion in 2003 and also world record holder in September after the Athens Games . The IOC banned Shaheen for the 2004 Games and then passed a regulation that bans athletes from participating in an international competition for a period of three years if they had previously started for another country in such a competition. This rule can only be overridden with the consent of the athlete and the two associations involved. In Shaheen's case, however, the Kenyan Athletics Federation refused to allow a start in Athens. The favorites in Athens were therefore the runners from Kenya, who had dominated this competition for years. Vice world champions Ezekiel Kemboi, Brimin Kipruto and Paul Kipsiele Koech were the names of the three Kenyan representatives and they hardly had to fear competition. The most likely candidates were the Spanish World Cup third Eliseo Martín, the French World Cup fourth Bouabdellah Tahri, the Moroccan vice world champion in 2001 Ali Ezzine and the Dutch vice European champion Simon Vroemen.

It didn't take long in the final before the three Kenyans took command and supported each other. The 1000-meter intermediate time of 2: 42.55 min showed a quick race from the start. The field of runners lengthened accordingly early, many athletes fell behind and could not keep up with this pace. The Kenyans' racing tactics with irregular running allowed the field to catch up a bit in the slower phases. But this kind of running was grueling and in the long run there were bigger and bigger gaps among the different smaller groups that got together. Even before the last kilometer, in addition to the three Kenyans, only the Katari Musa Amer Obaid, also born in Kenya, was in the top group. The second thousand meters were run in 2: 41.72 minutes. The four leaders were followed by a group of two with the Spaniard Luis Miguel Martín and Ezzine, about fifteen meters behind. Tahri ran another ten meters behind and tried to catch up. On the penultimate lap, Obaid had to struggle to keep contact with the front, although this lap was not overly fast. At the beginning of the final round, Martín had even made friends again. Koech led to the end of the back straight, the race was now getting faster and faster, there was a long sprint and Martín fell back again. Shortly before the start of the finish curve, Kemboi took the lead, but didn't seem to really be serious. He encouraged his compatriots with a show of hands, Obaid was still in contact as fourth. But at the beginning of the home straight, Kemboi pushed the pace again significantly. At first Kipruto was able to follow, while Koech and Obaid fought for bronze. But in the last fifty meters it was clear that Ezekiel Kemboi had the gold medal for sure. In the end, he no longer had to spend himself fully. Brimin Kipruto safely finished second, Paul Kipsiele Koech clearly won the race for bronze. Musa Amer Obaid was fourth ahead of Luis Miguel Martín. Simon Vroemen was able to fight his way up to sixth place ahead of Bouabdellah Tahri. Ali Ezzine took eighth place ahead of Eliseo Martín. At 2: 41.54 minutes, the last kilometer was roughly within the scope of the first two kilometer sections. In the end, only three tenths of a second were missing from the Olympic record .

Ezekiel Kemboi won the eighth Kenyan gold medal over 3000 meters obstacle . It was the sixth in a row for Kenya. For the second time since 1992 , the Kenyan team achieved a triple success in this discipline. It was the third triple success overall on this route. In 1928 three Finns won all three medals.