The first ever women’s steeplechase gold medal to be available at a major international athletics event was won, appropriately, by a Kenyan, upholding the rich tradition of her country’s men who have dominated this specialty since the 1968 Olympics.
Gladys Jerotich Kipkemoi may have been running barefoot (as did her teammate Mercy Wanjjku Njoroge) but she employed sophisticated tactics, waiting until the penultimate lap before unleashing a decisive sprint that would see her burn off the challenge of the Romanian Ancuta Bobocel, and stop the clock in 9:47.26, the second fastest time in the world this year.
The race began in pedestrian fashion, with the first 200m covered in 40 seconds, and the tightly bunched field was led by the Russian Yuliya Mochalova, with Kipkemoi and Australia’s Aleisha Anderson right behind. The group remained intact until the 1000 metre point, reached in 3:15.27, at which point Kemboi began to pick up the pace as Turkey’s national record holder Asli Cakir began to make an impression.
With three laps to go, the leading group was down to five athletes: two Kenyans, Kipkemoi and Njoroge, two Romanians, Bobocel and Oprea and Cakir and the 2000m point was reached by Kepkemoi leading in 6:35.53. The penultimate lap was reached with 7:14 on the clock, and Kipkemoi waited until the backstraight before surging hard to open a 10 metre lead on Bobocel, but that was gradually eroded thanks to the Romanian’s superior technique clearing the barriers.
Hitting the bell at 8:34.47, Kipkemoi is a couple of metres ahead of Bobocel with Oprea about 10 metres further back, just ahead of Njoroge. The Kenyan overtook Oprea to move into the bronze medal position with 300 metres to go, but was also let down by her hurdling technique and Oprea clawed her way back into third.
By clearing the last water jump smoothly, Kipkemoi seemed certain of her win, and made no mistakes with the last barrier, clearing comfortably with a fading Bobocel now settling for silver.
The young Romanian came home in 9:49.03, a new European Junior record, with her team mate Oprea finishing just behind in 9:50.04, a new personal best. As well as the Championship record and African junior record of Kipkemoi, there was a South American junior record from Zenaide Vieira of Brazil (10:10.84) in eighth as well as four new national junior records. It was the perfect start for this new woman’s event.
