Chepkoech beats defending champion to seal record breaking 3000m steeple chase win

Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech who lead from the front from the starting gun won the gold medal of 3000m steeple chase women’s finals beating defending champion Emma Coburn of USA as she set a new championship record of 8 minutes 57.84 seconds. The race saw Emma too clocking her personal best time to win the silver medal (9:02.35 ) where three personal bests and three national records were set in that event.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=552353868839907

 

 

Beatrice Chepkoech (KEN) – gold

On her race plan and how she felt during the race:

“Today my race was good, I am happy about today’s result. Finally, I am a world champion”

On if knowing her opponents helped her:

“Since 2016 I’ve been seeing all of them a lot. Everyone is good, everyone is improving. Emma was in good shape, and was in front me, but year by year I tried my best and started having a little experience and improved my technique. Today I executed an excellent race.”

Emma Coburn (USA) – silver

On the race:

“I expected Beatrice would go hard at the beginning and knew that my last phase is the best. I tried to follow, but I died really hard. So, I finally worked my upper limit was, and for me that’s mostly not the first lap, so I stayed back, I got off the line really slow on purpose, feel out how this first lap is going to play out. I thought there would be a chance, we would be over in the middle km and during the second km we were running all that fast. I just focused on, stayed relaxed, tried to have the water jumps doing well with the same calm, whenever I did make a move to close hard, I couldn’t hesitate.

“I am really proud I got the silver medal and a personal best. I wasn’t worried about what the clock was saying tonight, but it was the cherry on top a personal best at the end of it.

On if she tested various methods for the Championships race: 

“I really wanted to test my body limits the limits of my mind as well and all these previous races in 2019 provided good lessons for me.

“Tonight, was a combination of all those races, taking the lessons I’ve Iearned, the mistakes I made and tried to put together a fast race. I wasn’t strong enough to go along with Beatrice. I was able to execute that plan well and won the silver medal. 

On the conditions in the stadium:

“I was training in Saint Moritz, the conditions I prefer being in the mountains. We knew that the stadium would be air conditioned. Team USA and medical staff prepared us well with any cooling method needed. I wore ice vest even for 2 minutes walk from the facility to the stadium just make sure that I stayed cool. I was impressed by how cool the stadium was. Heat was not an issue for us today.

I feel for the marathoners and race walkers the conditions  were brutal and dangerous and I don’t envy that at all, its’ very very hot out there.

Gesa Felicitas Krause (GER) – bronze

On if the fellow athletes in the race helped beat the national record:

“Yes definitely. Beatrice went out hard and the rest of the field tried to follow. I didn’t feel that great in my first km, I just hung on for a bit, I know that the second part of the race is my best. I executed my race very well and I am extremely happy, win another bronze medal at World championships and of course it’s awesome to run a national record. It has been a brilliant year for me.

 

”The last year was very difficult. Not every year is the same, I am still learning. We’ve been hear quite a while now we know each other, since 2011. Everybody improves differently from year to year. It’s exiting to explore my body to see what I am able to do.

 

On her finish, when she made the late move:

“I always have a good finish. The first part of the race is usually the part that hurts more because I don’t know, my favourite event when I was younger was the 800m and the 1500m I liked the shorter events a lot.

 

“I did a great race in the 2000m Steeplechase a couple of weeks ago and I finished very strong and today when I closed the gap, during the last two laps it gave me a lot of confidence and I had a good technique in the hurdles and the water jumps, closed the gap very smooth. That changed my mind adds a little of excitement to you for the last 100m and if you see that medals are so close you forget about all the pain and is awesome that you have some energy left and catch somebody in the last 100m.