Olympic champion Ruth Jebet has just broken the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase world record by six seconds at the Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday.
The 19-year-old Jebet, born in Kenya but running for Bahrain, clocked 8 minutes, 52.78 seconds at Stade de France.
The previous record was 8:58.81 by Gulnara Samitova-Galkina of Russia at the 2008 Beijing Games.
When Ruth Jebet took gold in the women’s 3000m steeplechase at the Rio Olympics, after racing to victory in 8:59:75 — just shy of a world record — she was greeted with boos in her native Kenya — because she was running on behalf of Bahrain.
Many in Kenya accused Jebet, 19, of betraying her homeland.
But Jebet’s manager Gregory Kilonzo says without switching allegiance to the Middle Eastern nation she may never have had the chance to perform on the world stage.
“People complain that Ruth was sold to Bahrain but no, that’s not the case,” Kilonzo told CNN. “Here in Kenya there are very many athletes and all of them want to participate in these games.
“You have to go for trials and compete just to get a chance and its only one person who gets selected for a particular race … But in Bahrain they don’t even do trials for the athletes, they look at your previous competitions.”
A very fine moment for athletics, congrats Ruth!!!
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