ATHLETICS – Bahrain’s reigning Olympic champion and former world champion Winfred Yavi powered to a dominant victory while nearly clocking this year’s fastest time in the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase at the Night of Athletics in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium.
The meeting was a Bronze-level event on the 2026 World Athletics Continental Tour.
Yavi was in scintillating form in her race. She ran much of the distance solo at the front and won by an impressive margin of nearly a half-minute.
Yavi completed her event in eight minutes 52.87 seconds.
She was the only runner to go sub-nine minutes and came just under two seconds from beating the world lead of 8:51.06, set last May by former Olympic gold-medallist Peruth Chemutai of Uganda.
Yavi was also close to setting her new season’s best, currently 8:51.54, which she registered in May.
Olivia Gurth from Germany followed in second place in 9:21.73, while Flavie Renouard from France came third in 9:21.79.
Rounding out the top five from the 16 competitors were Adia Budde from Germany in 9:26.53 and Andrea Nygard Vie from Norway in 9:33.19.
Yavi was one of four Bahrainis competing in the Heusden-Zolder event.
Alaa Samuel took fourth place in the second final of the men’s 400m in 46.93 seconds; Abdikani Hamid took seventh in final two of the men’s 5,000m, which he finished with a time of 13:34.04; and Hamse Dhabar finished 17th in a quicker first final of the men’s 5,000m where he clocked a mark of 13:42.59.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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