21-year-old Kenyan Faith Cherotich wins steeplechase world title in championship record time of 8:51.59

By David Monti with additional reporting and analysis by Robert Johnson
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

TOKYO (17-Sep) — In the first of two distance finals tonight (the men’s 1500 gets its own recap here), the women’s 3000m steeplechase, there were a lot of fireworks on the last lap.  Winfred Yavi of Bahrain, the world champion in Budapest in 2023 and the Olympic champion in Paris in 2024, had a two-meter lead over Kenya’s Faith Cherotich at the bell.  Yavi had a half a second on Cherotich going into the final water jump, but the former Kenyan landed flat-footed in the water pit and lost her momentum.  Cherotich powered out of the water, took the lead, and held it to the finish.  The tiny 21-year-old Kenyan ran a championships record of 8:51.59, nearly five seconds ahead of Yavi to win her first global gold after earning the bronze in 2023 and 2024. The championship record came despite the fact that race was run in warm and muggy conditions – 83 degrees, 76 dew point at start.

Faith Cherotich of Kenya passes Winfred Yavi of Bahrain out of the final water jump at the 20th World Athletics Championships in Tokyo (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)

“I am so happy to win today,” Cherotich said in her flash quote.  “Improving from bronze to gold is amazing to me.”  She continued: “In the last 400m, I said, ‘this is my moment.’ I remember my coach told me, ‘Faith, you can do it.’ He told me to not be afraid and to follow the best no matter who the best is, and I might be the winner.”

Kazakhstan’s Norah Jeruto, the 2022 world champ, was in the bronze medal position for most of the final lap, but the fast early pace (the opening km was 2:55 and within 600 meter the field had splintered into two) and warm conditions had her in the hurt box when she hit the final water jump. As she landed, she pitched forward and fell face down in the shallow part of the pit.  As she tried to get up, Kenya’s Doris Lemngole, the NCAA record holder and champion for Alabama this year, tripped over her.

Norah Jeruto of Kazakhstan fell after jumping the final water barrier at the at 20th World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, tripping Kenya’s Doris Lemngole, and allowing Ethiopia’s Sembo Almayew to get the bronze medal (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)

That gave Ethiopia’s Sembo Almayew an opening to skip past her fallen rivals and sprint in for the bronze medal in 8:58.86, a personal best.  Tunisia’s Marwa Bouzayani, who also benefited from the water jump chaos, took fourth in a national record 9:01.46.  Lemngole and Jeruto finished fifth (9:02.39) and sixth (9:06.34), respectively.

The United States team had three women in the final, and North Carolina State athlete Angelina Napoleon, who is only 20, did the best.  She finished ninth in 9:17.44.  Despite extending her track season well into September, she said that she would still run fall cross country for coach Laurie Henes.

“I’m definitely coming back for cross country,” Napoleon told Race Results Weekly.  “Our team has big goals and we’re ready to achieve them.”

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Quick Take Analysis by Robert Johnson of LetsRun.com

It appears there has been a changing of the guard in the women’s steeple

At the start of 2024, Faith Cherotich and Winfred Yavi had raced each other six times in the steeple and Yavi had won all six. Last year, the duo split their four races but Yavi still won Worlds. This year, Cherotich was clearly in the driver’s seat, winning 3 of 4 matchups including Worlds. Yavi is still the world leader at 8:45.25 from Pre, but Cherotich will start 2026 as the clear world #1. Moreover, Cherotich wasn’t afraid to talk about her desire to run the world record in 2026.

“The world record is possible, I think. It is a matter of working hard and believing in yourself,” said Cherotich about Beatrice Chepkoech’s 5-year-old mark of 8:44.32.

Of course, Yavi shouldn’t be written off completely either. She’s still just 25 herself.

That being said, Cherotich at 21 is starting to build a career that could see her end up as the GOAT in this event. She has PB’d and won a global medal in each of the last five seasons:

• 2021 – World Jr. bronze – 9:33.02 pb
• 2022 – World Jr. gold – 9:06.14 pb
• 2023 – WC bronze – 8:59.65 pb
• 2024 – Olympic bronze – 8:55.15 pb
• 2025 – WC gold – 8:48.71 pb

Angelina Napoleon had an UNREAL 2025 season

NC State’s Napoleon started the year with a 9:54.08 pb. After three early-season PBs, including a win at ACCs, her pb was down to 9:27.85. At NCAAs, she chopped another 10+ seconds off, running 9:16.66 for 3rd. If she had been content to end her season there, with a 37.42-second improvement, few would have complained.

But Napoleon wasn’t content to rest on her laurels—she hopped on a plane and ran 9:10.72 at the Paris DL just six days later. Six weeks after that big PB in Paris she ran 9:10 again to get 2nd at NCAAs, and nearly seven weeks after that she ran 9:17 to place 9th at Worlds. Remarkable.

The hot early pace and hot conditions wiped the women out for the last lap

Up until this race, all of the distance finals at the 2025 World Athletics Championships had started with modest opening paces. That wasn’t the case in the women’s steeplechase, as the opening pace was even hotter than the temperature in the stadium. Within 600m, the field had splintered into two packs — with the eight African-born women in the lead pack and the seven non-African-born women in the chase pack.

2021 Olympic champ Peruth Chemutai was doing the leading and hit 1k near world-record pace (2:55.20). Chemutai led until almost 2k (5:56.91), when she fell at a barrier and never got up. Jeruto briefly took over before Yavi made her push for home, running an unofficial 69.95 penultimate lap.

Given the fast early pace and hot conditions, the last lap was carnage for most of the women not named Faith Cherotich, who closed in 66.98. Six women entered the final lap with a shot at breaking 9:00, but only three did. Cherotich was the only woman to break 70 on the last lap. Yes, Jeruto’s fall — which also impacted Lemngole — didn’t help, but it likely didn’t change the bronze-medal outcome as Almayew was closing well while the others were running in quicksand.

Results

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