Sensational Winfred powers to Diamond League title

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s world champion Winfred Yavi last night added another major accolade to her already spectacular career, capturing this season’s Diamond League title in the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase.

The 23-year-old secured her crown with a scintillating performance at the 2023 Diamond League final at The Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, in the US, winning her race while clocking the second-fastest time in history, which is also the world lead, a new Asian record, a new meeting record, and her personal best.

After pacing herself at the back of the leaders’ group for most of the race, Winfred powered to the front with two laps to go.

Her chief competitor Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya, the world record holder, trailed right behind her, and the pair were engaged in a tight battle the rest of the way.

Winfred was able to put in a decisive final kick down the home straight, and she finished with a time of eight minutes 50.66 seconds, shattering her old personal best and previous world lead of 8:54.29.

Beatrice followed in 8:51.67 as the runner-up, while Faith Cherotich, also of Kenya, was third in 8:59.65.

Winfred’s time is only second-best all-time to Chepkoech’s world record of 8:44.32, clocked in 2018.

Winfred claimed her first-ever Diamond League title just weeks after becoming a world champion.

She led the same trio that finished in the same order as they did at this year’s worlds in Budapest.

Along with her glittering Diamond Trophy, Winfred also came away with $30,000 in prize money for first place.

Winfred became the third Bahraini in recent years to be crowned as a Diamond League champion.

She has followed in the footsteps of fellow-Bahrainis Ruth Jebet, also in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, and Salwa Eid Naser in the women’s 400m.

The Diamond League final is a two-day meeting that marks the culmination of this athletics outdoor season’s top-tier annual series, under World Athletics.

Winfred is the lone Bahraini to have qualified for the event.