By Alex Castle
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Despite a field with six of the world’s fastest women’s steeplechasers of all time, Kenyan world-record holder Beatrice Chepkoech made it look easy in the Prefontaine Classic’s 3,000-meter steeplechase with a near 10-second victory on Sunday at Stanford’s Cobb Track and Angell Field.
“It was not so tight,” said Chepkoech, who ran a world-leading time of 8 minutes, 55.58 seconds.
The defending Diamond League champion opened up a lead in the second half of the race that just kept growing. The win also gave Chepkoech the Pre Classic and facility record, and of the 13 sub-9-minute finishes in history, she now owns six of them.
With no by-nation restrictions at the Pre Classic, the race likely featured a deeper pool of talent than will be entered at this year’s world championships in Doha. Joining Chepkoech were Coburn, the 2017 world champion and first American with an Olympic medal in the event; eventual third-place finisher Hyvin Kiyeng, who has medaled at each of the last three major events; and fifth-place finisher Courtney Frerichs, the American record holder, among others.
After being ranked No. 1 in the world the last two years, Chepkoech spent her winter running competitively in cross country for the first time, finishing seventh in the world championships this March. With her second Diamond League victory of the season in hand, she now puts all her focus on the upcoming world championships in Doha, where she hopes to do more than just collect her first major medal.
“My aim is to win,” Chepkoech said.
In each of her last two Pre Classic performances, Chepkoech set personal records that propelled herself forward into the summer. In 2018, that resulted in her shattering the world record in Monaco with a time of 8:44.32, eight seconds faster than the previous record of 8:52.78. After the season, Coburn expressed suspicion around the Kenyan’s surprising record.
The history of women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase has been riddled with controversies. Previous world record holder and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Ruth Jebet has been suspended for the last 16 months after testing positive for EPO last year, while 2012 Olympic gold medalist Yuliya Zaripova served a two-and-a-half-year ban and was stripped of her medal for doping.
In that same Monaco race, 2017 world championship runner-up Frerichs replaced Coburn as the American record holder after clocking in at 9:00.85. Sunday marked Frierchs’ return from injury as she finished fifth in 9:09.75.
As for Coburn, the seven-time national champion ran her fastest race of the year after clipping her toe on a barrier and falling in the second half of the race. While she said the fall may have cost her a second or two, Coburn was pleased with her 2:56.59 mark in the first 1,000 meters.
“I’m happy with it,” Coburn said. “I really wanted to teach my mind and my body to get out hard.”
With the blistering pace Chepkoech has begun to set each time out, Coburn and the other runners are having to adjust their strategies.
“To be somewhere in contention you have to risk it and get out hard,” Coburn said.
While she felt herself slowing down in the back-half of the race, Coburn relied on efficient jumps over the final two barriers to best Kiyeng by less than a second.
“That’s when I think in this event you really can sneak a few extra places,” she said.
As she heads to the U.S. nationals in four weeks, Coburn is eyeing her first sub-9-minute time, which she expects to be necessary if she hopes to medal in Doha.
“I’m really just focusing on myself,” she said. “I’m just going to keep my eye on that goal.”
