2017 World Championships in Athletics – Women's 3000 metres steeplechase

Kenya had six entrants in the race, the three normally allowed including the number one runner in 2017 Celliphine Chepteek Chespol, plus defending champion Hyvin Jepkemoi and two expatriates; Winfred Mutile Yavi and world record holder / Olympic champion Ruth Jebet who were running for Bahrain. From the gun in the final Beatrice Chepkoech went to the front.

There is a partial lap at the beginning of all steeplechase events, that distance is variable depending on the construction of the steeplechase facilities at that track. The runners begin going over the barriers including the water jump when there are seven laps to go.

After going over the first two barriers, Chepkoech continued to run the track instead of cutting off to the water with the leaders, mostly Kenyans and the two Bahraini runners starting to follow her. The others realized the mistake and ran through the water, Chepkoech ran past the water on the track then had to circle back to go over the water, dropping her well behind the field. Out of the chaos, Yavi took the lead with Chepkoech rushing to catch up. Later in the second lap, Purity Cherotich Kirui stumbled after a barrier with two other athletes falling over her body on the track, suddenly this caused a six-woman breakaway. Jebet took over the lead and pushed the pace but hard running by Chepkoech managed to bridge the gap, while Yavi fell off the group shortly afterward. Jebet led Chespol, Jepkemoi, Chepkoech, plus Americans Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs tagging on the back through two more laps.

On the backstretch with less than two laps to go, Coburn moved forward to challenge the Kenyans and Chespol dropped off the pace. At the bell, being challenged by Coburn and Chepkoech, Jebet began to drop back. Down the final backstretch it was four athletes shoulder to shoulder across the track, the Kenyans on the inside and the Americans on the outside. Out of that, Jepkemoi emerged in the lead with Frerichs on her outer shoulder and Coburn a step behind. After the hard comeback, Chepkoech faded. Entering the final water jump, Jepkemoi took the turn wide and smoothly with Frerichs following, but Coburn cut sharply and took the inside line through the water jump, emerging with a two-metre lead over Frerichs who had a step on Jepkemoi. With free running room down the home stretch, Coburn opened up another seven metres on Frerichs who opened up another metre on Jepkemoi.[2][3]

Coburn's 9:02.58 was a Continental record, the Championship record and improved her position to number six on the all-time list, one ahead of Frerichs. Four of the five athletes ahead of them on that list finished behind them in this race.[4]

Before the competition records were as follows:[5]

Record	Perf.	Athlete	Nat.	Date	Location
World record	8:52.78	Ruth Jebet	BHR	27 Aug 2016	Saint-Denis, France
Championship	9:06.57	Yekaterina Volkova	RUS	27 Aug 2007	Osaka, Japan
World leading	8:58.78	Celliphine Chepteek Chespol	KEN	26 May 2017	Eugene, United States
African
Asian	8:52.78	Ruth Jebet	BHR	27 Aug 2016	Saint-Denis, France
NACAC	9:07.63	Emma Coburn	USA	15 Aug 2016	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
South American	9:38.63	Juliana Paula dos Santos	BRA	6 Jun 2016	Prague, Czech Republic
European	8:58.81	Gulnara Samitova-Galkina	RUS	17 Aug 2008	Beijing, China
Oceanian	9:14.28	Genevieve Lacaze	AUS	27 Aug 2016	Saint-Denis, France

The following records were set at the competition:[6]

Record	Perf.	Athlete	Nat.	Date
Championship	9:02.58	Emma Coburn	USA	11 Aug 2017
NACAC
American
South American	9:35.78	Belén Casetta	ARG	9 Aug 2017
	9:25.99			11 Aug 2017
Canadian	9:29.99	Geneviève Lalonde	CAN	11 Aug 2017

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 9:42.00.[7]

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+1), is as follows:[8]