Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 3000 metres steeplechase

Women's 3000 metres steeplechase at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Gold medal winner Habiba Ghribi
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	4–6 August
Competitors	44 from 26 nations
Winning time	9:08.37
Medalists
Habiba Ghribi  Tunisia Sofia Assefa  Ethiopia Milcah Chemos Cheywa  Kenya

Official Video

The Women's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 4–6 August at the Olympic Stadium. The winning margin was 1.47 seconds.

From the gun in the final, reigning world champion Yuliya Zaripova sprinted out to the lead and dictated the pace. But rather than continuing to accelerate, she slowed, with the rest of the field bunching behind with nobody willing to go around. The pack slowly disintegrated by attrition. With 3 laps to go a group of seven had separated, including all three Ethiopians, plus Milcah Chemos Cheywa, Mercy Wanjiku Njoroge and Habiba Ghribi, all still behind Zaripova. On the 6th lap, defending champion and World Record holder Gulnara Galkina, already off the back, made a right turn and stepped off the track. The pace quickened, losing Etenesh Diro and Njoroge at the water jump. Zaripova just continued to accelerate. On the back stretch Ghribi looked to be clear of the other three but almost put her hand out so as not to pass Zaripova. From that point, Zaripova just extended her lead with Ghribi clearly in second place. Sofia Assefa broke away from her teammate Hiwot Ayalew. Down the home stretch Cheywa made a late run but Assefa held on for the bronze medal. Compared to the previous year's world championships, the first two medalists were the same, Zaripova a second faster for her personal record, Ghribi was 3 seconds faster for her Tunisian national record, and Assefa 19 seconds faster to push Cheywa off the podium.

On 24 March 2016 the Court of Arbitration for Sport disqualified Yuliya Zaripova's results from 20 July 2011 to 25 July 2013 for doping, which included the Olympics. On 4 June 2016, Tunisian Habiba Ghribi was awarded with the olympic gold medal in a ceremony in Rades, Tunisia, presented by IOC Vice-President Nawal El Moutawakel.

Competition format

The women's 3000 m steeplechase competition consisted of heats and a final.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Gulnara Galkina (RUS)	8:58.81	Beijing, China	17 August 2008
Olympic record
2012 World leading	Milcah Chemos Cheywa (KEN)	9:07.14	Oslo, Norway	7 June 2012

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 4 August 2012	11:35	Round 1
Monday, 6 August 2012	21:05	Finals

Results

Round 1

Official Video Highlights

Qual. rule: first 4 of each heat (Q) plus the 3 fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes	Qual.
1	Gesa Felicitas Krause	Germany	9:24.91	PB	Q
2	Etenesh Diro	Ethiopia	9:25.31		Q
3	Milcah Chemos Cheywa	Kenya	9:27.09		Q
4	Polina Jelizarova	Latvia	9:27.21	NR	Q
5	Gulnara Galkina	Russia	9:28.76		q
6	Barbara Parker	Great Britain	9:32.07
7	Li Zhenzhu	China	9:34.29	SB
8	Diana Martín	Spain	9:35.77	PB
9	Genevieve LaCaze	Australia	9:37.90	PB
10	Korene Hinds	Jamaica	9:37.95	SB
11	Salima El Ouali Alami	Morocco	9:44.62
12	Shalaya Kipp	United States	9:48.33
13	Sudha Singh	India	9:48.86
14	Sviatlana Kudzelich	Belarus	9:54.77
15	Binnaz Uslu	Turkey	10:31.00		Doping

Heat 2

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes	Qual.
1	Sofia Assefa	Ethiopia	9:25.42		Q
2	Habiba Ghribi	Tunisia	9:27.42	SB	Q
3	Emma Coburn	United States	9:27.51		Q
4	Marta Domínguez	Spain	9:29.71		Q
5	Clarisse Cruz	Portugal	9:30.06	PB	q
6	Yelena Orlova	Russia	9:33.14
7	Valentyna Zhudina	Ukraine	9:37.90
8	Lydia Chebet Rotich	Kenya	9:42.03
9	Stephanie Reilly	Ireland	9:44.77
10	Gülcan Mıngır	Turkey	9:47.35		DSQ
11	Katarzyna Kowalska	Poland	9:48.60
12	Beverly Ramos	Puerto Rico	9:55.26
13	Cristina Casandra	Romania	9:58.83
14	Yin Annuo	China	10:09.10
15	Ángela Figueroa	Colombia	10:25.60

Heat 3

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes	Qual.
1	Hiwot Ayalew	Ethiopia	9:24.01		Q
2	Yuliya Zaripova	Russia	9:25.68		DSQ
3	Mercy Wanjiku Njoroge	Kenya	9:25.99		Q
4	Antje Moldner-Schmidt	Germany	9:26.57	SB	Q
5	Bridget Franek	United States	9:29.86		q
6	Ancuța Bobocel	Romania	9:31.06
7	Dorcus Inzikuru	Uganda	9:35.29
8	Sandra Eriksson	Finland	9:50.71
9	Eilish McColgan	Great Britain	9:54.36
10	Kaltoum Bouaasayriya	Morocco	9:58.77
11	Silvia Danekova	Bulgaria	9:59.52
12	Svitlana Shmidt	Ukraine	10:01.09		Doping
12	Özlem Kaya	Turkey	10:03.52
13	Matylda Szlęzak	Poland	10:08.84

Final

The runners line-up

Habiba Ghribi during the Olympic gold medal ceremony for the 3000 steeplechase at the London 2012 Olympic Games, on 4 June 2016 at the Radès Olympic Athletics Stadium.

Rank	Name	Nationality	Result	Notes
	Habiba Ghribi	Tunisia	9:08.37	NR
	Sofia Assefa	Ethiopia	9:09.84
	Milcah Chemos Cheywa	Kenya	9:09.88
4	Hiwot Ayalew	Ethiopia	9:12.98
5	Etenesh Diro	Ethiopia	9:19.89	PB
6	Antje Moldner-Schmidt	Germany	9:21.78	SB
7	Gesa Felicitas Krause	Germany	9:23.52	PB
8	Emma Coburn	United States	9:23.54	PB
9	Mercy Wanjiku Njoroge	Kenya	9:26.73
10	Clarisse Cruz	Portugal	9:32.44
11	Polina Jelizarova	Latvia	9:38.56
12	Bridget Franek	United States	9:45.51
	Gulnara Galkina	Russia	DNF
DSQ	Yuliya Zaripova	Russia	9:06.72	WL, PB
DSQ	Marta Dominguez	Spain	9:36.45

¹ On 24 March 2016, the Court of Arbitration for Sport disqualified Russian Yuliya Zaripova for doping and confirmed that she would be stripped of her gold medal. On 4 June 2016, the gold medal was officially reallocated to second place Habiba Ghribi from Tunisia by the IOC and IAAF updated the results. Marta Dominguez from Spain has been disqualified too.