In a race run at near world record pace Treacy, from Co Meath, was at the back from the start in the 18-woman field, with Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet easing to the gold medal coming home over seven seconds ahead of nearest rival Hyvin Jepkemoh of Kenya.
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The 19-year-old stormed into the lead after a few laps and set a blistering pace to win in eight minutes 59.75 seconds, shy of the 8:58.81 world record set by Russia’s Gulnara Galkina at the 2008 Beijing Games.
Kenyan Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi took silver while Emma Coburn of the U.S. won bronze by just 0.59 seconds.
Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet celebrates after winning the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase Final during the athletics competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 15, 2016. Despite that, she was unaware at how fast she was going and jogged over the line to take gold in a time of 8:59.75; less than a second off the World Record.
“Today it was too hot for the athletes, it was not easy to run a good time but I tried my best and the track is good”.
“It’s the first gold medal for Bahrain”, she said.
“I am so happy”, she said.
“The last two laps were really hard”. “I feel very honoured”, Coburn said.
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United States champion Coburn set the early pace before Jebet, who transferred her allegiance to Bahrain from her native Kenya in February 2013, surged with five laps to run of the seven-and-a-half lap race.
