Olympic Summer Games 2008 / Athletics - 3000 m obstacle (men)

sport	athletics
discipline	3000 meter obstacle course
gender	Men
place	Beijing National Stadium
Attendees	39 athletes from 28 countries
Competition phase	August 16 and 18, 2008
Medalist
gold	Brimin Kiprop Kipruto ( KEN )
silver	Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad ( FRA )
bronze	Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong ( KEN )

The 3000-meter obstacle course at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing was held on August 16 and 18, 2008 in the Beijing National Stadium. 39 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was Brimin Kiprop Kipruto from Kenya, silver went to French Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad and bronze to Kenyan Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong .

Current title holders

Olympic champion 2004	Ezekiel Kemboi ( Kenya )	8: 05.81 min	Athens 2004
World Champion 2007	Brimin Kiprop Kipruto ( Kenya )	8: 13.82 min	Osaka 2007
European champion 2006	Jukka Keskisalo ( Finland )	8: 24.89 min	Gothenburg 2006
Pan American Champion 2007	Joshua McAdams ( USA )	8: 30.49 min	Rio de Janeiro 2007
Central America and Caribbean champions 2008	José Alberto Sánchez ( Cuba )	8: 53.24 min	Cali 2008
South America Champion 2007	Sergio Lobos ( Chile )	8: 37.83 min	São Paulo 2007
Asian champion 2007	Ali al-Amri ( Saudi Arabia )	8: 54.25 min	Amman 2007
Africa Champion 2008	Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong ( Kenya )	8: 31.61 min	Addis Ababa 2008
Oceania Champion 2008	Tim Rogers ( Norfolk Island )	12: 18.36 min	Saipan 2008

Existing records

World record	7: 53.63 min	Saif Saaeed Shaheen ( Qatar )	Brussels , Belgium	September 3, 2004
Olympic record	8: 05.51 min	Julius Kariuki ( Kenya )	Final from Seoul , South Korea	September 30, 1988

Prelims

There were three preliminary runs. The first four runners - highlighted in light blue - as well as the three fastest athletes - highlighted in light green - qualified for the final.

Forward 1

The Pole Tomasz Szymkowiak is eliminated in seventh place in his semi-final

August 16, 2008 , 9:20 am

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Bouabdellah Tahri	France	8: 23.43 min
2	Brimin Kiprop Kipruto	Kenya	8: 23.53 min
3	Abdelkader Hachla	Morocco	8: 23.62 min
4th	Ali Tareq Mubarak Taher	Brunei	8: 23.66 min
5	Nahom Mesfin	Ethiopia	8: 23.82 min
6th	Ildar Minishin	Russia	8: 26.85 min
7th	Tomasz Szymkowiak	Poland	8: 29.37 min
8th	Rabia Makhloufi	Algeria	8: 29.74 min
9	Yoshitaka Iwamizu	Japan	8: 29.80 min
10	Valērijs Žolnerovičs	Latvia	8: 37.65 min
11	Alberto Paulo	Portugal	8: 39.11 min
12	Rubén Palomequ	Spain	8: 38.50 min
DNF	Matteo Villani	Italy

Forward 2

August 16, 2008 , 9:32 am

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Yakob Jarso	Ethiopia	8: 16.88 min	PB
2	Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad	France	8: 16.95 min
3	Anthony Famiglietti	United States	8: 17.34 min	PB
4th	Ezekiel Kemboi	Kenya	8: 17.55 min
5	Mustafa Mohamed	Sweden	8: 17.80 min
6th	Youcef Abdi	Australia	8: 17.97 min	PB
7th	Ivan Lukyanov	Moldova	8: 18.97 min	NO
8th	Bostjan Buc	Slovenia	8: 21.24 min
9	Brahim Taleb	Morocco	8: 23.09 min
10	Andrew Lemoncello	Great Britain	8: 36.06 min
11	William Nelson	United States	8: 36.66 min
12	José Luis Blanco	Spain	8: 37.37 min
13	Ali Ahmed Al-Amri	Saudi Arabia	9: 09.73 min
DNS	Jukka Keskisalo	Finland

Forward 3

The Moroccan Olympic eighth from 2004, Hamid Ezzine, did not reach the final this time as sixth in his preliminary run

August 16, 2008 , 9:44 am

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Ruben Ramolefi	South Africa	8: 19.86 min	PB
2	Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong	Kenya	8: 19.87 min
3	Benjamin Kiplagat	Uganda	8: 20.22 min
4th	Abubaker Ali Kamal	Qatar	8: 21.85 min
5	Eliseo Martín	Spain	8: 23.19 min
6th	Hamid Ezzine	Morocco	8: 27.45 min
7th	Vincent Zouaqui-Dandrieux	France	8: 27.91 min
8th	Roba Gary	Ethiopia	8: 28.27 min
9	Joshua McAdams	United States	8: 33.26 min
10	Pavel Potapovich	Russia	8: 36.29 min
11	Pieter Desmet	Belgium	8: 37.99 min
12	Halil Akkaş	Turkey	8: 44.70 min
13	Itay Magidi	Israel	9:05.02 min

final

space	Surname	nation	time	annotation
1	Brimin Kiprop Kipruto	Kenya	8: 10.34 min
2	Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad	France	8: 10.49 min	PB
3	Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong	Kenya	8: 11.01 min
4th	Yacob Jarso	Ethiopia	8: 13.47 min	NO
5	Bouabdellah Tahri	France	8: 14.79 min
6th	Youcef Abdi	Australia	8: 16.36 min	PB
7th	Ezekiel Kemboi	Kenya	8: 16.38 min
8th	Abubaker Ali Kamal	Qatar	8: 16.59 min
9	Benjamin Kiplagat	Uganda	8: 20.27 min
10	Mustafa Mohamed	Sweden	8: 20.69 min
11	Ali Tareq Mubarak Taher	Brunei	8: 21.59 min
12	Ivan Lukyanov	Moldova	8: 27.82 min
13	Anthony Famiglietti	United States	8: 31.21 min
14th	Ruben Ramolefi	South Africa	8: 34.58 min
15th	Abdelkader Hachla	Morocco	9:02.06 min

August 18, 2008 , 9:10 p.m.

The favorites for this race were clear: As medal candidates, there were hardly any other athletes than the runners from Kenya, who had dominated this competition for many years. There was one exception. In 2005, Qatar had provided the world champion with the current world record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen . But Shaheen had only changed from the Kenyan to the Qatari athletics federation after already major successes and had at the same time changed his name from Stephen Cherono to Saif Saaeed Shaheen . Shaheen was not on the starting list here in Beijing . The first three of the last World Championships Brimin Kiprop Kipruto, Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong and Ezekiel Kemboi had qualified for Kenya . As the reigning world champion, Kipruto was slightly favored, but Kemboi as runner-up world champion and Olympic champion in 2004 and Mateelong as third world champion were seen as strong competitors. Other candidates for top positions were the Swedish World Cup fourth Mustafa Mohamed, who immigrated to Sweden from Somalia many years ago, as well as the French World Cup fifth and EM third Bouabdellah Tahri.

In the final, three Kenyans, two French and one runner each from Ethiopia, Australia, Bahrain, Qatar, Morocco, Moldova, Sweden, South Africa, Uganda and the United States competed.

The race did not start quickly. The Kenyans initially let their opponents have their own way and focused on increasing the pace towards the end of the competition. I always positioned them in the best possible starting position with contact to the top. The first kilometer was run with the South African Ruben Ramolefi in the lead in 2: 46.97 minutes, which would have resulted in an end time of approx. 8:31 minutes. So it went on. The second 1000 meter section showed an almost identical speed of 2: 46.87 minutes. After two kilometers, Mustafa led. But now the Kenyans were getting serious and the pace was picking up. In the last lap the field was finally blown up. Five runners were still together at the front when the decision was made on the back straight. The three Kenyans, the Ethiopian Yacob Jarso and, surprisingly, also the French Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad fought for the medals. In the final corner, Jarso and Kemboi lost contact with the three leaders, who were almost on a line next to each other on the home straight. Outside world champion Kipruto sprinted, inside his compatriot Mateelong and in between the Frenchman Mekhissi-Benabbad. Brimin Kiprop Kipruto finally prevailed and fully lived up to his role as an Olympic champion. Very surprisingly, Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad won the silver medal behind him, bronze went to Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong. Kipruto ran the last thousand meters in 2: 36.50 minutes. Yacob Jarso was able to maintain his fourth place, while Ezekiel Kemboi fell back to seventh place, with Bouabdellah Tahri in fifth and Australian Youcef Abdi in sixth.

Brimin Kiprop Kipruto won the ninth gold medal for Kenya over 3000 meters obstacle . It was the seventh in a row.

Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad's silver medal was the second for France and France's fourth overall in this discipline, if you include Jean Chastanié's 1900 bronze over a 2500 meter obstacle.

• 

  Olympic Champion Brimin Kipruto, Kenya, in 2009

• 

  Silver medal for the Frenchman Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad

• 

  Bronze medalist Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong from Kenya - here in 2010

• 

  The Frenchman Bouabdellah Tahri is fifth

• 

  The Kenyan Olympic champion from 2004 Ezekiel Kemboi - here in 2009 - is seventh this time

• 

  Abubaker Ali Kamal (No. 13 on the pants) from Qatar is Olympic eight

• 

  Benjamin Kiplagat from Uganda is ninth

• 

  Tenth place for the Swede Mustafa Mohamed

• 

  The Moldovan Ivan Lukyanov ranks twelfth

Web links

• SportsReference 400m hurdles , accessed June 4, 2018
• Olympedia 3000 m obstacle , accessed July 31, 2020
• Official Report of the XXVIIIth Olympiad, Results Athletics , English / French (PDF, 3054 KB), accessed on June 4, 2018

Video

• Athletics 3000m Steeplechase Men - Final , posted August 18, 2008 on youtube.com, accessed June 4, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Campeonato CAC de Atletismo 2008 on athlecac.org, accessed on June 4, 2018
2. ↑ Campeonato Sudamericano de Atletismo 2007 on athlecac.org, accessed on June 4, 2018
3. ↑ 17th Asian Athletics Championship 2007 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at athleticsasia.org (PDF, 417 KB), accessed June 4, 2018 
4. ↑ Oceania Area Championships - 25/06/2008 to 28/06/2008 on athletics-oceania.com (PDF, 130 KB), accessed on June 4, 2018
5. ^ IAAF, 3000 m obstacle men , accessed on June 4, 2018
6. ↑ Saif Saaeed Shaheen, 3000m steeplechase world record holder resigns on africanews.com (English), accessed on June 4, 2018