ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S world and Olympic champion Winfred Yavi is back in action today at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, California, in the US.
Yavi will be running amongst a high-quality field in a star-studded women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase. The meeting is part of this season’s Wanda Diamond League – the sport’s premier one-day meeting series held annually under World Athletics, the international governing body of track and field. Action in the Prefontaine Classic is scheduled to begin at 11pm, while Yavi’s race gets underway at 12.07am, both Bahrain time.
Eugene will mark Yavi’s third race this season. Her previous two events were also part of this year’s Wanda Diamond League, and both times she finished as runner-up.
She heads into Eugene with a season’s best of nine minutes 02.76 seconds, which is still far from her personal best of 8:44.39, which she set last year and is an Asian and Bahraini record. It is also the second-fastest time ever, slower only than the current world record of 8:44.32.
Amongst her top rivals in the upcoming run are Kenya’s Faith Cherotich, who beat Yavi in their two showdowns this season – first in Doha, Qatar in May and then again in Oslo, Norway last month. Cherotich was also the Paris 2024 bronze-medallist in the steeplechase, and this year holds the fastest time in the steeplechase of 8:53.57, which she clocked last month in Paris.
Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai, last year’s Olympic silver-medallist in the steeplechase, is also in the fray, along with Courtney Wayment of the US, Sembo Almayew of Ethiopia, Marwa Bouzayani of Tunisia, and Norah Jeruto of Kazakhstan, among others.
The rest of the 16-athlete entry list is composed of Lomi Muleta and Alemnat Walle of Ethiopia, Alice Finot of France, Gesa Felicitas Krause of Germany, and Americans Olivia Markezich, Kaylee Mitchell, Lexy Halladay, Gebrielle Jennings, and Valerie Constien.
Yavi is the only Bahraini running in today’s Prefontaine Classic. She is expected to be amongst the kingdom’s top athletes who will be competing at this year’s World Athletics Championships, set to take place in Tokyo from September 13 to 21.
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