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'Stoked' Beamish stuns tearful El Bakkali for world steeplechase gold / Photo: © AFP
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'Stoked' Beamish stuns tearful El Bakkali for world steeplechase gold
New Zealand's Geordie Beamish produced a last-gasp spurt to edge defending two-time champion Soufiane El Bakkali for gold in a thrilling men's 3,000m steeplechase at the world championships in Tokyo on Monday.
Beamish left it late, sprinting through the crowded field to come alongside the Moroccan -- who also won the last two Olympic golds -- and pinch a dramatic victory at the line for New Zealand's first track gold at a world championships.
The New Zealander, who was spiked in the heats and fell to the track before recovering, clocked a winning time of 8min 33.88sec to halt El Bakkali's dominant streak on the global stage.
El Bakkali was seven-hundredths of a second adrift in second, while Kenyan teenager Edmund Serem rounded out the podium (8:34.56).
The reactions of Beamish, the 2024 world indoor 1,500m champion, and El Bakkali could not have been further apart.
The 28-year-old Kiwi was left gasping in disbelief as he looked at the results on the giant screens while the Moroccan burst into inconsolable tears and collapsed to the floor.
"This was a turn-up, wasn't it?!" Beamish said. "That was pretty unreal. I am still taking it all in. I just can't believe how hot the crowd was.
"Everything was hard but it all ended up well for me. I'm pretty stoked. I did a lot in the last 200 metres. You just need to visualise winning before it happens, and it will happen."
Beamish added: "I just gave myself a shot in the last 200 metres. I knew I had it in me tonight. I only knew I'd win one metre before the finish and that was enough.
"It's a first track gold for New Zealand at a world championships, which is pretty cool."
El Bakkali said defeat was "very difficult to accept".
"But I have to because this is high-performance sport," he said. "I congratulated the athlete from New Zealand. I had good tactics but I clipped the last barrier and lost balance.
"I will work hard to regain the world title. Today was not the result I wanted, but sport wins tonight."
It was a remarkable result for Serem in third in what is considered one of the most gruelling events on the track.
"It is my first world championships and to run the final with all these legends is something amazing," Serem said.
"That is a great experience for me as a 17-year-old guy. I have run many Diamond League races with them, but this was different.
"We have no pacemakers and the race was very slow from the beginning. I tried to take a great position for the last-lap sprints and was sure I'd have enough power because I did a huge job over the last year to increase my endurance and speed."
Serem, who trains with Kenyan marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge, said he considered the two-time Olympic champion his mentor.
"I learned a lot from him," he said.
Y.Harris--SFF
