# 2017 World Championships in Athletics – Men's 3000 metres steeplechase

The men's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held at the London Olympic Stadium on 6 and 8 August.
After a temporary retirement announced immediately after the Olympic race, 4-time champion, seven time medalist Ezekiel Kemboi (Kenya), once known for his flamboyant frohawk hairstyles was back, now as a 35-year-old without a hair on his head. His historic record was well known, but his semi-final was his fastest race of the year making him an unknown quantity. In fact, the entire 2015 podium and the 2016 Olympic podium were in this event, though 2008 Olympic champion and 2015 bronze medalist Brimin Kipruto (Kenya) at age 33 didn't make the final.

## Summary

In the final Conseslus Kipruto (Kenya) went to the front, but he didn't set a blistering pace to burn off the competition, instead he kept control of the race. Jairus Birech (Kenya) and Evan Jager (USA) stayed close behind. After a leisurely 2:51.81 first kilometre, after which entire Ethiopian team of Tesfaye Deriba, Tafese Seboka and Getnet Wale moved ahead to push the pace. Kemboi was biding his time along the rail. Jacob Araptany (Uganda) lost his shoe and stopped in the middle of the track to fix it, taking him completely out of contention.
After four laps, Jager moved to the front and increased the pace, with only Kipruto, Birech, Ezekiel Kemboi and Soufiane El Bakkali (Morocco) staying in the front group with him. Birech, and later Kemboi, dropped away, and Jager led the remaining trio until they reached the beginning of the final backstretch, where Kipruto accelerated past Jager, followed by El Bakkali. By the water jump, El Bakkali had pulled even, but Kipruto had more speed down the final straightaway. Jager held third place despite a late run from Mahiedine Mekhissi.

## Records

Before the competition records were as follows:
| Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date | Location |
| World | 7:53.63 | Saif Saaeed Shaheen | BHR | 3 Sep 2004 | Brussels, Belgium |
| Championship | 8:00.43 | Ezekiel Kemboi | KEN | 18 Aug 2009 | Berlin, Germany |
| World leading | 8:01.29 | Evan Jager | USA | 21 Jul 2017 | Monaco |
| African | 7:53.64 | Brimin Kiprop Kipruto| | KEN | 22 Jul 2011 | Monaco |
| Asian | 7:53.63 | Saif Saaeed Shaheen | BHR | 3 Sep 2004 | Brussels, Belgium |
| NACAC | 8:00.45 | Evan Jager | USA | 4 Jul 2015 | Saint-Denis, France |
| South American | 8:14.41 | Wander do Prado Moura | BRA | 22 Mar 1995 | Mar del Plata, Argentina |
| European | 8:00.09 | Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad | FRA | 6 Jul 2013 | Saint-Denis, France |
| Oceanian | 8:14.05 | Peter Renner | NZL | 29 Aug 1984 | Koblenz, West Germany |
The following records were set at the competition:
| Record | Perf. | Athlete | Nat. | Date |
| Iranian | 8:33.76 | Hossein Keyhani | IRI | 6 Aug 2017 |

## Qualification standard

The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 8:32.00.

## Schedule

The event schedule, in local time (UTC+1), was as follows:
| Date | Time | Round |
| 6 August | 10:05 | Heats |
| 8 August | 21:10 | Final |

## Results
### Heats

The first round took place on 6 August in three heats as follows:
| Heat | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Start time | 10:04 | 10:22 | 10:38 |
| Photo finish | link | link | link |
The first three in each heat ( Q ) and the next six fastest ( q ) qualified for the final. The overall results were as follows:
| Rank | Heat | Order | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 2 | 9 | Evan Jager | United States (USA) | 8:20.36 | Q |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | Tafese Seboka | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:20.48 | Q |
| 3 | 2 | 5 | Yoann Kowal | France (FRA) | 8:20.60 | Q |
| 4 | 2 | 11 | Ezekiel Kemboi | Kenya (KEN) | 8:20.61 | q, SB |
| 5 | 1 | 15 | Soufiane El Bakkali | Morocco (MAR) | 8:22.60 | Q |
| 6 | 1 | 12 | Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad | France (FRA) | 8:22.83 | Q |
| 7 | 1 | 13 | Getnet Wale | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:23.00 | Q |
| 8 | 2 | 15 | Albert Chemutai | Uganda (UGA) | 8:23.18 | q, PB |
| 9 | 1 | 6 | Bilal Tabti | Algeria (ALG) | 8:23.28 | q |
| 10 | 3 | 4 | Conseslus Kipruto | Kenya (KEN) | 8:23.80 | Q |
| 11 | 1 | 4 | Jairus Birech | Kenya (KEN) | 8:23.84 | q |
| 12 | 3 | 3 | Stanley Kebenei | United States (USA) | 8:24.19 | Q |
| 13 | 3 | 12 | Matthew Hughes | Canada (CAN) | 8:24.79 | Q, SB |
| 14 | 3 | 10 | Tesfaye Deriba | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:25.33 | q |
| 15 | 1 | 9 | Jacob Araptany | Uganda (UGA) | 8:25.86 | q |
| 16 | 1 | 2 | Ala Zoghlami | Italy (ITA) | 8:26.18 | PB |
| 17 | 3 | 13 | Hillary Bor | United States (USA) | 8:27.53 | |
| 18 | 1 | 10 | Ole Hesselbjerg | Denmark (DEN) | 8:27.86 | PB |
| 19 | 1 | 1 | Krystian Zalewski | Poland (POL) | 8:28.41 | |
| 20 | 2 | 1 | Hicham Bouchicha | Algeria (ALG) | 8:30.01 | |
| 21 | 3 | 2 | Altobeli da Silva | Brazil (BRA) | 8:31.82 | |
| 22 | 1 | 3 | Zak Seddon | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 8:32.84 | |
| 23 | 3 | 1 | Brimin Kipruto | Kenya (KEN) | 8:33.33 | |
| 24 | 1 | 7 | Hossein Keyhani | Iran (IRI) | 8:33.76 | NR |
| 25 | 2 | 10 | Mohamed Ismail Ibrahim | Djibouti (DJI) | 8:33.77 | |
| 26 | 2 | 2 | Abdoullah Bamoussa | Italy (ITA) | 8:34.86 | |
| 27 | 3 | 11 | Jakob Ingebrigtsen | Norway (NOR) | 8:34.88 | |
| 28 | 2 | 8 | Yemane Haileselassie | Eritrea (ERI) | 8:35.73 | |
| 29 | 3 | 14 | Napoleon Solomon | Sweden (SWE) | 8:35.95 | |
| 30 | 3 | 8 | Yohanes Chiappinelli | Italy (ITA) | 8:36.48 | |
| 31 | 1 | 5 | José Peña | Venezuela (VEN) | 8:37.15 | |
| 32 | 3 | 6 | Jonathan Romeo | Spain (ESP) | 8:38.05 | |
| 33 | 2 | 12 | Fernando Carro | Spain (ESP) | 8:38.42 | |
| 34 | 3 | 9 | Mohamed Tindouft | Morocco (MAR) | 8:40.99 | |
| 35 | 3 | 5 | Boniface Sikowo | Uganda (UGA) | 8:43.86 | |
| 36 | 2 | 7 | Hicham Sigueni | Morocco (MAR) | 8:44.74 | |
| 37 | 2 | 6 | Mitko Tsenov | Bulgaria (BUL) | 8:45.21 | |
| 38 | 2 | 3 | Hironori Tsuetaki | Japan (JPN) | 8:45.81 | |
| 39 | 2 | 13 | Raouf Boubaker | Tunisia (TUN) | 8:46.25 | |
| 40 | 3 | 7 | Stewart McSweyn | Australia (AUS) | 8:47.53 | |
| 41 | 3 | 15 | Rob Mullett | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 8:47.99 | |
| 42 | 1 | 8 | Sebastián Martos | Spain (ESP) | 8:51.57 | |
| 43 | 2 | 14 | Ieuan Thomas | Great Britain & N.I. (GBR) | 8:52.96 | |
| 44 | 1 | 14 | Tarık Langat Akdağ | Turkey (TUR) | 8:53.42 | |
| | 1 | 11 | Emil Blomberg | Sweden (SWE) | DNF | |

### Final

The final took place on 8 August at 21:11. The results were as follows (photo finish):
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Conseslus Kipruto | Kenya (KEN) | 8:14.12 | |
| | Soufiane El Bakkali | Morocco (MAR) | 8:14.49 | |
| | Evan Jager | United States (USA) | 8:15.53 | |
| 4 | Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad | France (FRA) | 8:15.80 | |
| 5 | Stanley Kebenei | United States (USA) | 8:21.09 | |
| 6 | Matthew Hughes | Canada (CAN) | 8:21.84 | SB |
| 7 | Tesfaye Deriba | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:22.12 | |
| 8 | Tafese Seboka | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:23.02 | |
| 9 | Getnet Wale | Ethiopia (ETH) | 8:25.28 | |
| 10 | Albert Chemutai | Uganda (UGA) | 8:25.94 | |
| 11 | Ezekiel Kemboi | Kenya (KEN) | 8:29.38 | |
| 12 | Jairus Birech | Kenya (KEN) | 8:32.90 | |
| 13 | Yoann Kowal | France (FRA) | 8:34.53 | |
| 14 | Jacob Araptany | Uganda (UGA) | 8:49.18 | |
| | Bilal Tabti | Algeria (ALG) | DQ | |