Moroccan maintains streak of global championship victories but athletes and fans are hoping Lamecha Girma recovers from nasty accident with just over 200m to go
Soufiane El Bakkali’s golden reign as 3000m steeplechase champion continued as the Moroccan won his fourth global title in the past four years.
However the event was marred when world record-holder Lamecha Girma suffered a horrible fall when he hit a barrier hard with just over 200m to go. Falling to the ground with a heavy thud, the Ethiopian did not move until he was stretchered away by officials.
Girma, who also holds the world indoor 3000m record, was hospitalised after the race. The Paris 2024 organisers said: “Following his fall in the 3000m steeplechase, Lamecha Girma received immediate care from the on-site medical teams. Our thoughts are with him and we are sending him our very best wishes for a swift recovery. Paris 2024 is in close contact with the Ethiopian NOC to stay updated on his condition.”
Oblivious to the accident, El Bakkali won a sprint-out for gold in 8:06.05 as Kenneth Rooks won a popular silver for the United States in 8:06.41 and Abraham Kibiwot took bronze for Kenya with 8:06.47.
Lamecha Girma receives treatment (Getty)
On his victory, El Bakkali said: “I’m really glad I have won again. This is my second Olympic gold. I am really, really pleased. This year I am going to celebrate with family, friends and everybody.
“I have actually worked hard this year. It didn’t start very well for me because I had a stress problem at the beginning of the year. The injury was hard. But this is the Olympics. It’s not a normal day job, so I had to keep going.”
On his Paris win compared to Tokyo, he added: “This time is a bit different. Last time there were no fans, but this time everybody is here in the stadium, and it’s my home, it’s Paris.”
After Rooks finished second, British steeplechase Phil Norman took to social media to say: “An excellent run by Kenneth Rooks of the USA to take silver in the 3000m steeplechase running a huge 9sec PB. It’s worth noting that he qualified via a world rankings position, just showing that anything can happen.”
Norman, of course, was one of the unlucky British athletes who were not selected by UK Athletics despite being in a world rankings qualifying position.
Rooks was at the back in the early stages and gradually moved through before bolding taking the lead with a lap to go. He said: “It has been a great year for the USA. I think we’ve won medals in every distance event that’s been run so far on the men’s side. It’s a special year.”
On his race, he added: “I had a lot of confidence going in that I didn’t know exactly what my limit was. Just stay in the mix, give it everything that I had. It was surreal to take the lead at the end and realise I might get a gold, but I’m glad I was able to fight for the silver. It’s unreal, a dream. It’s been awesome to take it all in. The victory lap took so long, seeing so many people.”
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