Championship best falls to Norah Jeruto while Aimee Pratt smashes her own British mark in Eugene

Racing on the hottest night of the championships in temperatures nudging 33°C, the women’s steeplechase saw four national records broken and three women run inside nine minutes. These included a championship record of 8:53.02 by Norah Jeruto and, in seventh, a British record of 9:15.64 by Aimee Pratt.

The Kenyan-born athlete claimed victory for Kazakhstan after seeing off the challenge of Werkuha Getachew, who ran an Ethiopian record of 8:54.61, Mekides Abebe of Ethiopia, with an 8:56.08 PB and Winfred Yavi of Bahrain, who ran 9:01.31.

“They are also champions like me, so I was scared of them,” Jeruto said. “I tried my best to win the race, but it was not easy.”

Behind there were further national records from Luiza Gega of Albania (9:10.04 in fifth) and Pratt a couple of places further back as she took three seconds off the 9:18.91 UK record she set in her heat earlier in the week.

Jeruto’s run beat Beatrice Chepkoech’s championship record of 8:57.84 and was the third best in history as the 26-year-old sealed the race by flying over the final water jump to gain a few metres’ advantage on her rivals.

Getachew, a former Ethiopian 800m champion, tried to close but could not catch the diminutive Kazakh athlete.

Despite the presence of two Americans, Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs, the one-two at London 2017, a little under 11,000 fans were in Hayward Field on Wednesday (July 20) to watch the action unfold. This was also probably due to the timetable being a little thin on finals (just two) and heavy on heats and rounds.

Frerichs, who is also a member of the Portland-based Bowerman Track Club, was sixth in 9:10.59, just ahead of Pratt, who in turn was just ahead of one of the athletes she looks up to most in the sport, Coburn.

Pratt was pretty pleased with her efforts but said her goal had been to dip inside 9:15.

British record-breaker Aimee Pratt runs a brilliant 9:15.64 in the world steeplechase final. ?

But she wanted even quicker and had her eye on a sub-9:15 clocking. #Oregon2022

? ⁦@Jason_AW⁩ pic.twitter.com/4TPb9EWwr7

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) July 21, 2022

Earlier in the evening the 5000m heats saw Letesenbet Gidey lead the qualifiers with 14:52.27. Eilish McColgan and Jess Judd also made the final with 14:56.47 and 14:57.64 respectively although GB team-mate Amy Eloise Markovc went out with 15:31.62.

Caster Semenya, the three-time world 800m champion, also exited with 15:46.12.

The 400m hurdles semi-finals saw the Olympic medallists from Tokyo – Sydney McLaughlin, Femke Bol and Dalilah Muhammad – go through to the final, but Britain’s Jessie Knight went out with 55.39.

In the flat women’s 400m, Shaunae Miller-Uibo led the qualifiers with 49.55. British champion Victoria Ohuruogu ran a PB of 50.99 but went out as she finished fourth in Miller-Uibo’s heat.

Her GB team-mates Nicole Yeargin (51.22) and Ama Pipi (52.88) also went out.

?? British champ Victoria Ohuruogu runs a 50.99 PB for 4th in her 400m semi won by Shaunae Miller-Uibo. #Oregon22 pic.twitter.com/Cg0lBfx9xd

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) July 21, 2022