\n
Mahiedine Mekissi won last year\u2019s European title with a powerful finish & he expects that with the benefit of a faster pace & hotter competition the European record of his countryman \u201cBob\u201d Tahri may be under some real threat. Tahri\u2019s continental record stands at 8.0.1.13 , whilst Mekhissi\u2019s best is 8.02.52. In the right conditions & with the right pace Mekhissi feels that not only can he take the European record but that he has a realistic chance of achieving a sub 8 minute performance, a time only ever accomplished by only one non Kenyan born runner, Morocco\u2019s Brahim Boulami! <\/p>\n
A realistic pace will be set by Mekhissi training partner Zerrifi & then in turn the pace will be pushed by Kenya\u2019s Haron Langat as the classy field shoot for the first sub 8 minute race of the season. <\/p>\n
Olympic & World Champion Brimin Kipruto, who has yet to run under 8 minutes for the 3000m Steeple will also appreciate the fast pace & will be looking for a new personal best to become the eighth Kenyan born athlete to achieve this feat. Also in the field & providing great encouragement will prolific sub 8 minute steeplechaser Paul Koech. The Kenyan Olympic silver medallist has been under the magical 8 minute barrier on no fewer than 8 occasions & would like nothing better than to erase Moses Kiptanui\u2019s long standing stadium record of 8.03.36 that dates back to 1995.<\/p>\n
As expected a group of younger African will also be chasing a win in Oslo which will be the third 3000m Steeple to be contested in this year\u2019s Samsung Diamond League. These include Patrick Langat & Silas Kitum from Kenya & the quickly improving Benjamin Kiplagat of Uganda. <\/p>\n
The Bislett stadium, the \u201cworld record track\u201d has witnessed two World Records in the 3000m Steeplechase; in 1955 the Finn, Pentii Karvonen established a time of 8.45.4 . More recently (in 1975) the Swede Anders Garterud posted an extremely impressive time of 8.10.4. The stadium history is well known to all the fans who will supply that special \u201cBislett\u201d support to all the competitors. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the advice that France\u2019s European Champion Mahiedine Mekhissi has confirmed his entry...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oslo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}