7. RUTH JEBET
Only a few athletes can boast of dominating their event the way Ruth Jebet did in 2016, thus earning the 7th spot on our top list. Not only did the Kenyan-born athlete bestride the 3000m Steeplechase like a colossus and was virtually unbeaten this year, she also went on to break Gulnara Galkina’s World Record (WR) of 8:58.81 set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Jebet, who competes for Bahrain, totally annihilated the field in all of her Diamond League (DL) races in 2016, while Kenya’s Hyvin Kiyeng played second fiddle. It was a sharp contrast from Kiyeng’s 2015 fortunes where she ruled the event and even claimed the World title in Beijing, while Jebet finished a distant 11th. But the order had changed now, and Jebet left no room for a slip-up on her part.
The 20-year old had targeted the WR a number of times, and many expected her to finally wreck some havoc on the time at the Games. However, she narrowly missed the mark by a second but still struck GOLD in 8:59.75, the second fastest time ever in the event to win Bahrain’s first Olympic GOLD in any sport. With only two more meetings before the climax of the DL series, the general assumption was that Jebet was done making an attempt on the WR this season.
Who would have guessed that the former World Junior Champion still had an ace up her sleeves at the Paris DL? The petite runner stunned both opponents and fans alike at the Stade de France, shaving more than six seconds off the WR with a superior mark of 8:52.78, becoming only the second woman after Galkina to have ever dipped below the nine-minute mark in the event. An overjoyed Jebet said:
“I’m so happy. I’ve tried to beat the WR several times, but tonight we decided to push ourselves to go looking for a good time. The pacemaker was very strong. She was at the Games… I wasn’t expecting such a difference with the previous record. I think I finished my season today.” Jebet now owns three of the four fastest times in history, and ended the season with the Diamond Race trophy.
