Morocco’s Soufiane el Bakkali makes history, ends Kenya’s 3000m steeplechase domination

Come every Olympics, there are a few golds that are as good as decided. The personnel change but not the winners’ nationalities. One such script was torn up at the rain swept Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Monday evening.

Kenya were denied victory in the 3000m steeplechase in arguably the biggest upset on track for its sheer history of dominance, ending a run of victories in nine consecutive Olympics, starting with 1984 Los Angeles. Kenya’s vice-like grip on the event can be gauged from the fact that they had won the previous 11 times they entered the event, going back to 1968 Mexico. Kenya didn’t enter the 1976 Montreal and 1980 Moscow Games. (Full Tokyo 2020 Coverage)

The last time Kenya entered the 3000m steeplechase and did not finish first was at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, 57 years ago.

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So, when Morocco’s Soufiane el Bakkali timed his late surge to perfection, winning the tactical race in a slow 8:08.90, an empire fell in the world of track.

El Bakkali was safely tucked behind as the race unfolded with the Kenyans and their fierce Ethiopian rivals, three runners apiece, jockeying up front.

The 25-year-old El Bakkali made his decisive move at the final water hurdle and finished clearly ahead of Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma with Kenya’s Benjamin Kigen taking bronze.

Since Kenya’s distance runners took the Olympics athletics by storm at the altitude of the 1968 Mexico Games, their team tactics had virtually made it impossible for their rivals to break through. Ehiopia had led the counter offensive with victories in other distance events, but the steeplechase had remained Kenya’s last bastion.

El Bakkali though was a favourite to pull off a historic upset in the absence of Kenya’s 2016 Rio champion Conseslus Kipruto. He has been growing in stature. He came second behind Kipruto at the 2017 London World Championships and took bronze at the 2019 Doha worlds.

“I’m so used to seeing Kenyans win, it’s a big accomplishment for me. I have been aiming for this for years and this was my opportunity to show that Morocco is capable of winning this prize in front of the Kenyans,” El Bakkali was quoted as saying in the Tokyo Games website.

“I have been thinking about being more confident, working on my self-confidence and also trusting that I can win. I have tried so many times to compare myself with the Kenyans and Ethiopians to see whether I could reach this gold, and I did.”