These are the official results of the Men's 3.000 metres Steeplechase event at the 1991 IAAF World Championships in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

. There were a total number of 37 participating athletes, with three qualifying heats and the final held on Saturday August 31, 1991.

Summary

Defending champion

Francesco Panetta Francesco Panetta (born 10 January 1963 in Siderno) is a former Italian long-distance runner, who won several medals at international championships in the 1980s. Career Panetta's greatest achievement was the victory at the 1987 World Championsh ...

took the early lead, shadowed by Tom Hanlon. The ever dangerous Kenyan team scattered toward the rear of the pack, but quickly moved forward as a group to join the train behind Hanlon. The first action happened on the third lap when

Hagen Melzer Hagen Melzer (born 16 June 1959, in Bautzen) is a former East German middle and long-distance runner who specialised in the 3000 m steeplechase. He won the gold medal at the 1986 European Championships in Stuttgart. A year later he won t ...

and

Graeme Fell Graeme Vincent Fell (born 19 March 1959 in Dagenham, Essex, England) is a male former 3000 metres steeplechase runner. Athletics career Fell competed for England at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia, winning a silver medal in the 300 ...

, found themselves lying on the track after Fell fell over a barrier. Later in the lap, the Kenyans tired of training Hanlon and moved directly behind Panetta. Finally, the fourth time over the water jump, the entire Kenyan team passed Panetta. Over th next lap, Panetta began to fall back, leaving a 5-man break on the front, with Abdelaziz Sahere and Azzedine Brahmi tagging on behind the Kenyans. Behind the group, Panetta,

Brian Diemer Brian Lee Diemer (born October 10, 1961, in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is a former American track and field athlete, who mainly competed in the 3000 metre steeplechase during his career. He was high school state champion in the mile while running a ...

and

Angelo Carosi Angelo Carosi (born 20 January 1964 in Priverno) is an Italian long-distance runner who specialized in the 3000 metres steeplechase. In his later career he also took up half marathon and marathon. Biography He ran four times consecutively in the ...

were chasing trying to bridge the gap. Of the Kenyans, the order was consistently World 1500m Junior Champion

Moses Kiptanui Moses Kiptanui (born 1 October 1970) is a Kenyan middle and long distance athlete mostly famous for 3,000 m steeplechase in which he was the number one ranked athlete from 1991 to 1995 and three time IAAF World Champion. Kiptanui was al ...

leading

Patrick Sang Patrick Sang (born 11 April 1964) is a Kenyan running coach and retired steeplechase runner. Sang won three silver medals in major 3000 m steeplechase competitions: *1991 World Championships in Athletics * 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics * ...

, with Olympic champion

Julius Kariuki Julius Kariuki (born June 12, 1961) is the winner of the 3,000 m steeplechase at the 1988 Summer Olympics. Born in Nyahururu, Kenya, Kariuki's athletic career started slowly. He made his international debut at the 1984 Summer Olympics, wh ...

. On the penultimate lap, the Kenyans appeared to slow, enough for the breakaway group to catch the back temporarily, before the Kenyans again accelerated away. During the acceleration, Kariuki upset the patter by moving up to Kiptanui's shoulder. By the bell, only Brahmi was able to hold on to the back of Sang, the trailing Kenyan as Kariuki spent the next half lap challenging Kiptanui for the lead. Down the backstretch, Brahmi passed Sang before the water jump, but after the water it was again the three Kenyans on the front. As they hit the final straight, Kiptanui held a 2-metre lead over Sang, while Kariuki took the turn wide enough to allow Brahmi to fall in behind Sang, with Kariuki effectively conceding a Kenyan sweep and the bronze medal to him with 80 metres to go. Down the stretch, Sang accelerated enough for Kiptanui to sense his presence, then Kiptanui sped up to take a decisive victory.

Medalists

Schedule

*''All times are

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UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with ...

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Qualifying heats

*Held on Thursday 1991-08-29

Final

References