Summary
Soufiane El Bakkali was the defending Olympic champion and winner of the 2022 and 2023 World Championships in the event. The returning silver medalist Lamecha Girma had a longer string of silvers going back to 2019. In 2023, Girma set the world record. On all recent podiums with these two had been Kenyans, primarily 2016 champion and Olympic record holder Conseslus Kipruto, who did not return. The Kenyan team sent two new entrants, Amos Serem and Simon Koech, along with 2023 bronze medalist Abraham Kibiwot to try to restore their historical dominance.
Since 2016, El Bakkali had been a player in the major championship races. With that experience, he learned it is not productive to be part of the fray until it counts and held back over the first few laps. With three qualifiers each, the Kenyan and Ethiopian rivalry was in full effect. As things sorted out in the final, Avinash Sable ended up in the lead. Nobody challenged, letting Sable get a couple of steps in front. After a lap and a half, Ethiopian Getnet Wale moved to the lead, with his teammate Samuel Firewu moving forward. Girma moved to join his teammates. El Bakkali, expecting Girma to be his main competition, stayed in position to mark his every move. When Girma joined his teammates, El Bakkali came along for the ride.
With just under three laps to go, Simon Koech put Kenya in front, but the difference to the back of the pack was very little, at times three rows four abreast across the track. El Bakkali's Moroccan teammate Mohamed Tindouft took the lead with a lap and a half left. Then, with 500 metres to go, American Kenneth Rooks, who had been near the back of the pack in the early goings, accelerated down the home stretch to reach the front just after the bell. Rooks' bold move surprised the field and started to open up the race. Speeding over the barrier at the beginning of the backstretch, frequently the deciding point in these championship races, Rooks opened up a five-metre lead on Firewu and Kibiwot, who had started the traditional press at the barrier. El Bakkali and Girma accelerated next to each other right behind them, El Bakkali on the outside. Girma sprinted ahead of El Bakkali and Kibiwot going into the next barrier, 200 metres before the finish. Going over in full flight, Girma hooked his trail leg on the barrier, flipped over, and fell, hitting the back of his head on the ground. The tall world record holder's body laid motionless across two lanes of the track at the base of the important barrier before the final water jump. El Bakkali was wide going over in pursuit and avoided a collision with Girma. Kibiwot hurdled the body, and then everyone else in the field had to react, go wide, or hurdle the body as well. Three were separated off the front to race for the medals. Rooks was still two metres ahead of El Bakkali and Kibiwot, but they were gaining fast. The long-striding El Bakkali passed Rooks as they entered the final straightaway. While going over the last barrier, the group of three tightened, but El Bakkali was still in front. They sprinted for the finish. El Bakkali pulled away to win the gold medal, and though Kibiwot gained ground, Rooks was able to hold him off for silver. [2]
Girma was stretchered off the track in a neck brace, unconscious from hitting his head on the track, and taken to a hospital, where he regained consciousness and was able to speak. [3] [4] El Bakkali became the first man to successfully defend his Olympic title in this event. Rooks ran nine seconds faster than his personal best to get the unexpected silver medal. [5] [6]
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