ATHLETICS – BAHRAIN’S world and Olympic champion Winfred Yavi will be attempting to set a world record in the brand-new women’s steeplechase mile at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, Belgium, on August 22.
The meeting is part of this year’s Wanda Diamond League – the premier one-day meeting series held annually under World Athletics, track and field’s international governing body.
Organisers have announced Yavi’s mission to make history in the race, which is relatively new at the highest levels of track and field.
It is similar to Yavi’s specialisation of the traditional women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase – featuring barriers and a water jump – but the mile version is a more recent development, designed by World Athletics to be faster-paced and more exciting for both spectators and athletes.
“Twenty-five-year-old Winfred Yavi is coming to Brussels to make history in the brand-new steeple mile,” meeting organisers announced on social media.
“The reigning world and Olympic champion over 3,000m steeple will bring her power and pace to this shorter, faster discipline, with the world record in her sights.”
The meeting will take place at Brussels’ King Baudouin Stadium and Yavi is expected to go up against a strong field of competitors, which has yet to be announced.
Yavi has so far run four 3,000m steeplechase races this season. Three were in Wanda Diamond League events in Qatar last May, Norway in June, and the US in July, while the other was in a meeting in the Belgian municipality of Heusden-Zolder, also last month.
In her previous two races, Yavi stormed to victories with sub-nine-minute times. Her season’s best is eight minutes 45.25 seconds, which is also the world lead, from the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, in the US.
Her personal best is 8:44.39, which is an Asian, Arab, and Bahraini record, and also the second-fastest time in history – only seven-hundredths of a second behind the world record of 8:44.32 held by Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya.
Yavi is gearing up to defend her world title in the World Athletics Championships 2025, to be held in Tokyo, Japan, from September 13 to 21.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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