Beatrice Chebet to Highlight the Women’s 3000 meters in Rabat

No matter which track and field disciplines you follow, you’re surely already familiar with Beatrice Chebet. Some athletes are so accomplished that they transcend their events, and over the past two seasons, Chebet has risen to the pinnacle of star status. The 25-year-old looks to continue to dominate the international circuit this Sunday in Rabat, Morocco, in the women’s 3,000-meter.

Despite Chebet’s short professional career, her list of accomplishments is too long to list in full in this article. Chebet won gold at the Olympics last summer in the 5,000 and 10,000-meter. On her way, she also set a new world record in the 10,000-meter at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon.

We could tell you that she’s the Commonwealth Champion and a two-time Diamond League Final Champion, but we probably don’t have space to tell you that she’s also the African Champion or a nine-time Diamond League meeting winner.

We could also tell you that she’s the third woman in Olympic history to achieve the double in the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter at the Olympics, but that’s definitely where we have to cut off her list of accolades.

With the World Championships not until September this year, most athletes are months away from reaching their peak. Chebet, like many of the runners this weekend in the 3000 meters, is starting her season with the shorter distances before moving up to the longer events later in the summer.

But, despite being early in the year, would it be surprising if the 10,000-meter record holder dropped a time this weekend that made us look twice? Her current personal best of 8:24.05 in the event would be the fifth fastest time in the world this year, but of course, she ran this time nearly two years ago before going on her recent tear of international victories and records.

Chebet already broke the world 5-kilometer road race record at the end of this past December when she ran 13:54 in Barcelona, breaking the previous record by 19 seconds.

Le Meeting international Mohammed-VI will be an excellent showcase of the current level of fitness of the 18 women in the field to judge where they stand going into the heart of the season through June and July.

The 3,000 meters is one of the shortest events Chebet has contested, undoubtedly part of her strategy to build up for the World Championship. For all her accolades, one that she’s missing is the World Champion Gold medal, having previously won silver in 2022 and 2023. She’ll be looking to add it to her collection in Tokyo.

Giving chase to Chebet this weekend will be the silver medalist from last season in the women’s 5000 meters and compatriot Faith Kipyegon, as well as fourth-place finisher in the 5000, Nadia Battocletti of Italy. The woman with the fastest personal best in the 3000 meters in the field is Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye.

Rabat Diamond League Start List Women’s 3000 meters

Here’s a look at the full start list:

The women’s 3000 meters kicks off at 8:07 p.m. local time (3:07 p.m. EST) on Sunday, May 25. The event will be livestreamed on FloTrack in the United States.

A number of other Olympic medalists also appear on the start list for this Sunday. Other Olympic Championships to keep your eye on include Letsile Tebogo, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Quincy Hall, Soufiane El Bakkali, and Hamish Kerr.