ROME (Reuters) – Olympic champion Winfred Yavi of Bahrain won the 3,000 metres women’s steeplechase in impressive fashion at the Rome Diamond League meeting on Friday, coming agonisingly close to breaking the world record with the second-fastest ever time.
Yavi, who won gold in Paris earlier this month, sprinted for the line to finish with a time of 8 minutes 44.39 seconds, seven hundredths of a second off the record set by Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech in 2018.
The race became a re-run of the Olympic final, with Yavi again getting the better of Ugandan Peruth Chemutai, who lost her Olympic title in Paris and had to settle for silver, and Kenya’s bronze medallist Faith Cherotich coming in third.
Yavi and Chemutai left the rest of the field behind and were neck-and-neck on the final lap before Yavi powered away. She pushed all the way to the line, coming so close to setting a new record.
“I looked at the time after the race and I went ‘oh, no!’. I was really expecting that record and I was going for it,” Yavi said.
“I definitely feel I should break it and I believe it will happen. I need to work even harder. And I am planning to have another go at it before the end of the season.”
Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent held off Olympic champion Masai Russell to win the women’s 100 metres hurdles, running a personal best of 12.24 seconds to beat the American.
“This victory is not like a revenge for the Olympics for me. I am just in really good shape. I was injured before and this is a new experience for me,” Nugent said.
Nugent, who failed to finish the Olympic final in Paris after hitting multiple hurdles before pulling up, impressed on a balmy night at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, matching the fourth-fastest ever time.
Botswana’s 200 metres Olympic gold medallist Letsile Tebogo triumphed in the men’s 100 metres in a time of 9.87 seconds, powering past America’s Christian Coleman to take the win.
“This was one of my best 100 metre races. Before this, I imagined what the perfect race over 100 would look like. You have to lock in into your mind and then it can happen,” Tebogo said.
The Italian crowd were hopeful of witnessing another world record attempt with Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, a three-time Olympic champion, going in the women’s 1,500 metres, but the race came too soon after her gold medal run in Paris.
Kipyegon, who broke her own world record in July with a time of 3:49.04 at the Paris Diamond League, took first place but didn’t threaten her previous mark, finishing in 3:52.89.
“The world record was not for today with the Olympics only two weeks ago. For the rest of my season I expect to perform well in my races,” Kipyegon said.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
