Yavi Wins Unbelievable Steeplechase Duel With Chemutai

The 8:40s club in the women’s steeplechase gained its second and third members this evening in Rome, as a battle between the two most recent Olympic champions lived up to the billing. Winfred Yavi strengthened her chokehold on the title of “second-fastest woman in history” and came a whisker away from moving up on that list with a clocking of 8:44.39, seven hundredths-of-a-second behind Beatrice Chepkoech’s world record that’s often been spoken about as untouchable. Peruth Chemutai shaved over five seconds off her PB for the second time this year, running 8:48.03.

The eventual top three of Yavi, Chemutati, and the young Kenyan Faith Cherotich, the same top three we saw in Paris, had created a gap on the field by the kilometer mark as they were right on world record pace. Cherotich started falling back as the trio approached 2000m, with Chemutai still leading Yavi. As they came towards the penultimate water jump, it looked like the world record would be out of reach, but they were still well on pace for a very fast time. Yavi moved to the front just before the bell and had to fend off dangerous attempts of being passed from her Ugandan rival on both the back straight hurdle and the water jump before closing the race with a blistering final 100m to leave no doubt.

On the final barrier, it looked like the Olympic and World champion needed just the smallest stutter-step to navigate it cleanly, which makes you wonder if that would have made up for the .07 seconds she ended up missing the world record by. If it’s any comfort, it sounds like she’ll be ready to take another shot at it in the Diamond League final, according to her post-race interview.

Before the calendar turned to 2024, Chemutai had never broken nine minutes. She’s done so three times this year, and now owns the third-, ninth-, and 13th-fastest times in history, but funnily enough her only win in any of those three races was in her slowest one, which came at the Pre Classic.

Nugent Keeps It Rolling After Olympic Stumble

If there’s a book on how to bounce back from a disappointing showing at the Olympics, Ackera Nugent is writing it right now. The 22-year-old won the Jamaican sprint hurdles title in late June, running 12.28 to enter the top 10 performers in history. Paris didn’t quite go according to Nugent’s plans, as she found herself in lane nine for the final, where she clipped the first hurdle and could never quite recover, eventually recording a DNF.

Since that frustrating finish, the former Arkansas standout has been on a tear over the last three Diamond Leagues, finishing third in Lausanne and taking the win in Silesia in an impressive clocking of 12.29. On this hot night in Rome, however, she took it to another level with a win in 12.24. Her time, which was run into a headwind, moves her from tied for ninth all-time all the way up to fourth.

The field was tight over the first several hurdles, but Nugent and her former SEC rival, Olympic champ Masai Russell, pulled away over the last three barriers and finished well ahead of the field. Russell finished in 12.31, the second-fastest time of her career, but the win would have almost assuredly been more valuable than the time.

The only women to ever run faster than 12.24 were all older than Nugent at the time of running their historic times. Already having dipped under 12.30 on three occasions, twice into a headwind, Nugent has showcased the kind of potential that should have fans thinking that the world record (and maybe even a wind-legal 12.0X?) could be in her future.

Tebogo Stays Consistent In Both Winning And Elite-Level Trolling

Letsile Tebogo has simply been untouchable since a sixth-place, national record finish in the Olympic 100m final. He cruised through the 200m rounds before claiming Olympic gold in African record fashion, and then nearly split 42 seconds to help Botswana win silver in the 4x400m. Back on the Diamond League circuit, he picked up a pair of strong 200m victories, but tonight’s win in the 100m was a glowing example of everything that makes Letsile Tebogo great.

Let’s start with the actual race. There was a very strong field assembled on this hot Italian evening, including former World champions Christian Coleman and Fred Kerley, and Tokyo Olympic champ Marcell Jacobs. Tebogo got out really well in this race. In fact, even better than Coleman, the greatest starter in history, as Tebogo was slightly ahead through the first 60m. Tebogo covered this first 60m in 6.41 seconds, .04 faster than he was through that mark in the Olympic final where he ran 9.86.

Given that he’s the 200m Olympic champion, it makes sense that he pulled away from Coleman, who has sometimes struggled in closing races out over the final 40m. This part of the race is where the fun part comes in. As he began to open a tiny gap, he gave Coleman a look across the track that I feel qualifies as much more than a glance. He let the excitement show on his face as he powered through the last 20 or so meters, and then let it show in another way, as he dropped his arms and crossed the line for the win in 9.87. My description fails to do it justice; I implore you to go watch the video so that you can fully understand how crazy it is that he managed to run 9.87 while doing all that.

The discussion around whether Tebogo is entering the conversation to be the face of the sport has been a hot one in the weeks since his Olympic triumph. He’s mostly tried to shrug it off, but he is forcing himself into the spotlight with the glorious combination of antics like these while running (and winning) as well as he does. And at only 21-years-old, the track world still has many years of Letsile Tebogo in its future, and that is excellent news.