# 2023 World Athletics Championships – Men's 3000 metres steeplechase

The men's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest from 19 to 22 August 2023.

## Summary

Defending champion Soufiane El Bakkali had taken residence on the podium since 2017, including the 2020 Olympics. Lamecha Girma had taken silver twice in a row and another at the Olympics. The difference this year was that Girma had taken down Saif Saaeed Shaheen's world record in Paris just over a month earlier. And he didn't just nip the record, he took a second and a half out of it, uncontested.
Nobody wanted to take the lead, that duty relegated to Simon Sundström in a pedestrian 67 first lap. But that wasn't slow enough so Leonard Bett slowed it down to a 69 and then 66's to get the field through 5 laps. Girma was always lurking about second place, now it was time to start racing. The next lap was just over 60 seconds. After spending a couple of laps at the back of the pack, El Bakkali drifted up to mark Girma. When the speed came, only Abraham Kibiwot was able to go with the big two. By the bell, he too had lost contact. On the first barrier after the bell, Kibiwot crashed. Nobody else was left in the picture. It wasn't the kind of breakaway speed the days of Ezekiel Kemboi, but El Bakkali pushed the backstretch to pull even with Girma with 200 to go. He opened up a step going in to the last water jump and continued to pull away. Even though El Bakkali slowed to wave at the crowd as he crossed the finish line, he still won by 10 metres. Far adrift from the leaders, Kibiwot came back to outsprint Bett to get the bronze. Including the Olympics it was three global championships in a row to have El Bakkali first, Girma second and a Kenyan in third.

## Records

Before the competition records were as follows:
| Record | Athlete & Nat. | Perf. | Location | Date |
| World record | Lamecha Girma (ETH) | 7:52.11 | Paris, France | 9 June 2023 |
| Championship record | Ezekiel Kemboi (KEN) | 8:00.43 | Berlin, Germany | 18 August 2009 |
| World Leading | Lamecha Girma (ETH) | 7:52.11 | Paris, France | 9 June 2023 |
| African Record | Lamecha Girma (ETH) | 7:52.11 | Paris, France | 9 June 2023 |
| Asian Record | Saif Saaeed Shaheen (QAT) | 7:53.63 | Brussels, Belgium | 3 September 2004 |
| North, Central American and Caribbean record | Evan Jager (USA) | 8:00.45 | Paris, France | 4 July 2015 |
| South American Record | Wander do Prado Moura (BRA) | 8:14.41 | Mar del Plata, Argentina | 22 March 1995 |
| European Record | Mahiedine Mekhissi (FRA) | 8:00.09 | Paris, France | 6 July 2013 |
| Oceanian record | George Beamish (NZL) | 8:13.61 | Monte Carlo, Monaco | 21 July 2023 |
The following records were set at the competition:
| Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date |
| Oceanian record | 8:13.46 | George Beamish | New Zealand (NZL) | 22 Aug 2023 |

## Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 8:15.00.

## Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+2), was as follows:
| Date | Time | Round |
| 19 August | 12:35 | Heats |
| 22 August | 21:42 | Final |

## Results
### Heats

The first 5 athletes in each heat (Q) qualify to the final.
| Rank | Heat | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Lamecha Girma | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:15.89 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | George Beamish | New Zealand (NZL) | 8:16.36 | Q |
| 3 | 3 | Leonard Kipkemoi Bett | Kenya (KEN) | 8:16.74 | Q |
| 4 | 3 | Ryuji Miura | Japan (JPN) | 8:18.73 | Q |
| 5 | 1 | Getnet Wale | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:19.99 | Q |
| 6 | 1 | Jean-Simon Desgagnés | Canada (CAN) | 8:20.04 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | Simon Sunström | Sweden (SWE) | 8:20.10 | Q, PB |
| 8 | 1 | Simon Kiprop Koech | Kenya (KEN) | 8:20.29 | Q |
| 9 | 1 | Daniel Arce | Spain (ESP) | 8:20.46 | Q |
| 10 | 1 | Ryoma Aoki | Japan (JPN) | 8:20.54 | Q, SB |
| 11 | 3 | Victor Ruiz | Spain (ESP) | 8:20.54 | |
| 12 | 1 | Mohamed Tindouft | Morocco (MAR) | 8:20.67 | |
| 13 | 3 | Djilali Bedrani | France (FRA) | 8:20.69 | |
| 14 | 1 | Avinash Mukund Sable | India (IND) | 8:22.24 | |
| 15 | 3 | Karl Bebendorf | Germany (GER) | 8:22.33 | |
| 16 | 3 | Mohammed Msaad | Morocco (MAR) | 8:22.95 | |
| 17 | 2 | Kenneth Rooks | United States (USA) | 8:23.66 | Q |
| 18 | 2 | Soufiane El Bakkali | Morocco (MAR) | 8:23.66 | Q |
| 19 | 2 | Mohamed Amin Jhinaoui | Tunisia (TUN) | 8:24.20 | Q |
| 20 | 1 | Benard Keter | United States (USA) | 8:24.20 | |
| 21 | 2 | Abraham Kibiwot | Kenya (KEN) | 8:24.31 | Q |
| 22 | 2 | Leonard Chemutai | Uganda (UGA) | 8:24.74 | Q |
| 23 | 2 | Nahuel Carabaña | Andorra (AND) | 8:27.05 | |
| 24 | 1 | Vidar Johansson | Sweden (SWE) | 8:27.21 | |
| 25 | 3 | Ala Zoghlami | Italy (ITA) | 8:28.76 | |
| 26 | 2 | István Palkovits [de] | Hungary (HUN) | 8:29.37 | |
| 27 | 1 | Ahmed Jaziri | Tunisia (TUN) | 8:29.81 | |
| 28 | 1 | Topi Raitanen | Finland (FIN) | 8:30.69 | |
| 29 | 2 | Abrham Sime | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:31.49 | |
| 30 | 3 | Isaac Updike | United States (USA) | 8:31.81 | qR |
| 31 | 2 | Osama Zoghlami | Italy (ITA) | 8:33.07 | |
| 32 | 2 | Salaheddine Ben Yazide [de] | Morocco (MAR) | 8:38.14 | |
| 33 | 2 | Seiya Sunada [de] | Japan (JPN) | 8:38.59 | |
| 34 | 3 | Fouad Idbafdil | Athlete Refugee Team (ART) | 8:39.21 | |
| 35 | 1 | Matthew Clarke | Australia (AUS) | 8:40.92 | |
| 36 | 2 | Emil Blomberg | Sweden (SWE) | 8:42.33 | |
| 37 | 3 | Julián Molina | Argentina (ARG) | 8:46.44 | |

### Final

The final was started on 22 August at 21:42.
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Soufiane El Bakkali | Morocco (MAR) | 8:03.53 | |
| | Lamecha Girma | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:05.44 | |
| | Abraham Kibiwot | Kenya (KEN) | 8:11.98 | |
| 4 | Leonard Kipkemoi Bett | Kenya (KEN) | 8:12.26 | |
| 5 | George Beamish | New Zealand (NZL) | 8:13.46 | |
| 6 | Ryuji Miura | Japan (JPN) | 8:13.70 | |
| 7 | Simon Kiprop Koech | Kenya (KEN) | 8:14.37 | |
| 8 | Jean-Simon Desgagnés | Canada (CAN) | 8:15.58 | PB |
| 9 | Daniel Arce | Spain (ESP) | 8:18.31 | |
| 10 | Kenneth Rooks | United States (USA) | 8:20.02 | |
| 11 | Getnet Wale | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:21.03 | |
| 12 | Leonard Chemutai | Uganda (UGA) | 8:21.61 | |
| 13 | Mohamed Amin Jhinaoui | Tunisia (TUN) | 8:23.08 | |
| 14 | Ryoma Aoki | Japan (JPN) | 8:24.77 | |
| 15 | Simon Sundström | Sweden (SWE) | 8:27.68 | |
| 16 | Isaac Updike | United States (USA) | 8:30.67 | |