{"id":1135,"date":"2019-06-11T12:18:13","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T12:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/2019\/06\/11\/coburn-and-grovdal-ready-to-face-the-barriers\/"},"modified":"2019-06-11T12:18:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T12:18:13","slug":"coburn-and-grovdal-ready-to-face-the-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/coburn-and-grovdal-ready-to-face-the-barriers\/","title":{"rendered":"Coburn and Grovdal Ready to Face the Barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrating the 54th edition of the Bislett event, the Norweigian capital is set to welcome an impeccable 3,000m steeplechase field which will feature no less than eleven of the world\u2019s top 20 athletes, including Kenya\u2019s world record-holder, Beatrice Chepkoech and her compatriot, Hyvin Kiyeng – the Olympic silver medalist. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For 28-year-old American Coburn, the fierce contest will provide a mouth-watering opportunity to hone her speed and skills over the steeplechase barriers against the global elite, and the world champion revealed:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2013 All the top runners are here for this race so it\u2019s going to be a challenge but I\u2019m ready for it. It\u2019s hard to predict but I\u2019ll run as hard as I can and hope to be in the mix.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The runner-up in 2018 amidst bizarre controversy over the height of one of the barriers, Coburn\u2019s steeplechase appearance is her first of the summer following a fine 4:05.24 1500m season opener in the US recently. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2013 It\u2019s a dramatic event so we\u2019re used to being on our toes and expecting the unexpected – hopefully there\u2019ll be no drama this year or at least none that involves me. You have to find inner peace and focus on yourself,\u201d the Olympic bronze medalist explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2013 It was a nice surprise to see the track\u2019s brand new here – it looks gorgeous and feels great.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2013 This is going to be my first \u2018chase of the year – I\u2019ll try to be perfect for September for the (IAAF) World\u2019s (Championships – in Doha) – I have a bye for that as won the title in 2017. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The 2018 world number six with a 9:05.06 best, Coburn broke the American record with 9:02.58 in the 2017 season and she now has her sights on surpassing the magical nine-minute barrier during her 2019 campaign:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2013 I know I\u2019m fit but I\u2019m not sure how race sharp I am – though training has been going well and I almost ran a 1500m personal best recently,\u201d she revealed.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2013 I\u2019ve not done a lot of steeplechase workouts yet – I\u2019m saving them for later in the year, as it\u2019s such a long season this year.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2013 It\u2019s challenging to not get greedy too early – being patient is hard but you can\u2019t participate too often, you need to hold yourself back more than you want to this year – and my other goal for the season is to dip under nine-minutes.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile for Grovdal, Thursday evening\u2019s race signifies a return to health following her recovery from serious injury. <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Norweigian will be a popular attraction to the local crowd and the European bronze medalist is keen to simply enjoy the experience without any pressure:<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2013 I\u2019ve struggled with injury lately but I am fit now and really looking forward to run,\u201d the four-time European cross-country bronze medalist explained.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2013 I\u2019m excited as it\u2019s my first race of the season and I\u2019m excited to see what form I\u2019m in – I\u2019m not sure of my race plan as I\u2019m not sure what shape I\u2019m in so we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

Quite surprisingly, the 2016 European 10,000m bronze medalist admitted:<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2013 I\u2019ve only been running for three weeks and I only did my first jumps over the barriers yesterday. I had a stress reaction to the pelvis in early April so I had six weeks of no running.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2013 I\u2019ve focused on my running shape – even though I would have liked a couple more weeks, you have to start somewhere and I\u2019m happy I can run now. It was actually helpful to have an extra month of winter training because of the injury and I\u2019m in no rush this year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

In her first competition since finishing fifth over 3,000m at the European indoor Championships in Glasgow back in March, Grovdal will undoubtedly enjoy returning to the Bislett Stadium, especially considering her history there:<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

The Olympic 5,000m seventh-placer finished seventh in the steeplechase last year and in 2015, in addition to taking sixth position in the mile in 2016 where she registered a swift 4:26.23 national record.  <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

Whilst the 2009 European junior 5,000m and steeplechase champion is not currently close to her 9:13.35 national record 2017 shape, Grovdal is content to play the waiting game during this long season:<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2013 Maybe it\u2019s too early to go for any times – I have to be in top shape in September,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2013 Later this month, I\u2019ll go to my altitude training camp in St Moritz and then I hope to compete in Monaco and then try to get the world qualifying time for 5,000m in London because I hope to do the steeplechase and 5,000m double in Doha.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nicola Sutton for the Bislett Games media team.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steeplechase stars, American Emma Coburn and Norwegian Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal spoke to the...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oslo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135","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=1135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1135"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oslo.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}