Today, the most common steeplechase event of track and field will be presented to you: The 3000m. As well as in other runs presented before, the athlete that crosses the finish line first wins. But the steeplechase includes a special characteristic: 28 fixed barriers and 7 water jumps must be overcome in a quick movement. The major difference to hurdles is that the barriers are fixed on the place and therefore athletes can use them to jump over. Then at the water jumps the runners land in a small pool on the far side.
The name “steeplechase” actually originates from Great Britain where runners ran from town to town to conquer steeples in each town. The steeplechase as we know it today comes from Oxford University in mid 19th century and was included to the English Championships in 1879. Since 1900 the event has been part of every Olympic Games with varying distances while for women it was included in 2008. There is also a height difference concerning the height of the obstacles: for men the barriers are 91.4cm high and for women 76.2cm. The area the athletes land on after a water jump is 3.66m long and has a depth of 50cm at the deepest point. The race also takes places on a standard 400m track and athletes have to complete the lap about seven times.
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As you might have noticed, the obstacles can be quite decisive for a race and therefore an athlete needs a good mixture of endurance, skill, speed, technique and agility. The key is to spend as little time as possible in the water as this slows the athlete down. Taking this into account, athletes have to train their hurdling technique, their long jump, endurance and core in order to surpass the obstacles as efficient as possible. The hardest part of the Steeplechase is probably the water jump. Ideally, the athlete doesn’t spend too much time in the air and gets out of the water very quickly so it would be optimal to jump far and not too high. You should approach the hurdle with a higher velocity and be explosive so you keep momentum and save a lot of time. You can practice this by putting up a hurdle in front of a regular sand pit and then start to run 30 or 40 meters in front of it and try to jump as far as possible while still landing on your feet. By this you can simulate the water jump without having the stress on your ankles that you would normally have when jumping into the water. You should also develop a greater hip and hamstring mobility as to get over the hurdles more efficiently, you could do Leg swings, walk overs or Over-under hurdles for example. And of course Intervals have their place in this discipline too as you will need a lot of endurance and strength for the race.
The current world record for men holds Ethopian runner Lamecha Girma with 7:52.11 while the women‘s world record is from Beatrice Chepkoech (KEN) with a time of 8:44.32. The most dominant nation in the discipline is probably Kenya since they won at almost every Olympic since 1968 for men. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Soufiane El Bakkali from Marocco won with 8:06.05 minutes.
Developing the Steeplechaser: Technique and Training for Racing Success – Hurdles First
3000 Metres Steeplechase
3000 metres steeplechase – Wikipedia
