Athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's 3000 metres steeplechase explained

Games:	1992 Summer
Event:	Men's 3000 metres steeplechase
Venue:	Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc
Dates:	3 August 1992 (heats) 5 August 1992 (semi-finals) 7 August 1992 (final)
Competitors:	32
Nations:	24
Longnames:	yes
Gold:	Matthew Birir
Goldnoc:	KEN
Silver:	Patrick Sang
Silvernoc:	KEN
Bronze:	William Mutwol
Bronzenoc:	KEN
Win Value:	8:08.84
Prev:	1988
Next:	1996

These are the official results of the men's 3000 metres steeplechase event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. There were a total number of 33 participating athletes, with four qualifying heats.^[1]

At the gun, it seemed like the rest of the world came to run, while the Kenyan team were just tagging along. Starting off slowly, all three Kenyans casually jogged around the outside of the pack and towards the front. William Mutwol continued, breaking away to as much as a 10-metre lead, with Elarbi Khattabi the only one to bridge the gap. On the next lap, Matthew Birir, running in fourth place, went down on the track, but Birir righted himself quickly and was back on his feet before the back of the strung out field had passed him. Within two more barriers, he was back in the same fourth-place position. By the time they reached the same spot on the track where Birir fell, he was in third place as the tail of the three man Kenyan breakaway. Over the next two laps, the only athlete seriously marking the Kenyans was Alessandro Lambruschini. Just after two laps to go, Patrick Sang edged ahead of Mutwol with Lambruschini gaining a little ground between barriers and losing the same amount each time he went over one. With a lap to go, Birir moved into the lead and the Kenyan sweep simply pulled away from Lambruschini, with the rest of the field already disappeared behind. No drama, no hurdling the water jump, no challenges, not even any sprinting. Lambruschini finished fourth for the second Olympics in a row, more than 25 metres behind Mutwol. This became the first Olympic podium sweep by an African nation.

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 1992 Summer Olympics.

World Record	8:05.35	Peter Koech	Stockholm (SWE)	July 3, 1989
Olympic Record	8:05.51	Julius Kariuki	Seoul (KOR)	September 30, 1988

Final

Held on August 7, 1992

RANK	FINAL	TIME
		8:08.84
		8:09.55
		8:10.74
4.		8:15.52
5.		8:16.60
6.		8:18.14
7.		8:18.77
8.		8:20.71
9.		8:22.51
10.		8:23.82
11.		8:25.92
12.		8:26.35

Semifinals

RANK	HEAT 1	TIME
1.		8:25.55
2.		8:26.12
3.		8:26.46
4.		8:26.70
5.		8:26.91
6.		8:27.46
7.		8:30.15
8.		8:32.89
9.		8:33.69
10.		8:39.17
11.		8:41.28
12.		8:52.00

RANK	HEAT 2	TIME
1.		8:19.83
2.		8:20.46
3.		8:23.30
4.		8:23.56
5.		8:25.85
6.		8:27.00
7.		8:30.26
8.		8:34.82
9.		8:36.38
10.		8:37.99
11.		8:38.07
12.		8:42.48

Heats

RANK	HEAT 1	TIME
1.		8:26.23
2.		8:28.88
3.		8:29.34
4.		8:30.03
5.		8:32.49
6.		8:33.10
7.		8:34.10
8.		8:40.46
9.		8:50.87
10.		9:07.49
-		DNS

RANK	HEAT 2	TIME
1.		8:23.22
2.		8:26.31
3.		8:27.23
4.		8:28.01
5.		8:28.36
6.		8:28.50
7.		8:29.01
8.		8:31.89
9.		8:36.73
10.		8:58.04
11.		9:14.48

RANK	HEAT 3	TIME
1.		8:27.01
2.		8:27.46
3.		8:27.71
4.		8:28.15
5.		8:29.64
6.		8:30.54
7.		8:30.61
8.		8:32.68
9.		8:36.87
10.		8:38.89
11.		8:54.98

Final ranking

Rank	Name	Nation



4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

valign=top

Rank	Name	Nation
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

External links

Notes and References

Web site: Athletics at the 1992 Barcelona: Men's 3,000 metres Steeplechase . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417174428/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1992/ATH/mens-3000-metres-steeplechase.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . 25 November 2017 . sports-reference.com.