RIO DE JANEIRO — Boulder’s Emma Coburn claimed the first Olympic medal for an American woman in the steeplechase Monday morning, taking bronze in a race won by Ruth Jebet of Bahrain.
Coburn, a former University of Colorado runner from Crested Butte, was in fourth place with 700 meters to go but made a move into third and nearly ran down Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi of Kenya for the silver medal to finish in 9:07.63, a half second behind Jepkemoi. Coburn’s time bettered the American record (9:10.76) she set earlier this year. Jebet’s winning time was 8:59.75.
“Oh my God, she’s wearing an Olympic medal,” Coburn’s mother, Annie, said moments after the medal ceremony. “Look at that.”
Jebet, a native of Kenya who began running for Bahrain three years ago, was on world record pace and missed the mark by less than a second. That helped Coburn by stringing out the field, turning it into a four-woman contest for the medals.
“As soon as Ruth took the lead, the last four or five laps were really tough,” Coburn said. “I was in fourth, there was a gap, but I knew if I steadily (increased) my pace that I could get them. I’ve never, in a race, done a big surge and held it. I wanted to slowly wind it up, wind it up.”
After passing Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya into third, Coburn thought, “Hold onto this, hold onto this. Then, with a lap to go, I looked back and she was pretty far away. She has a killer kick, but I thought, ‘OK, this is mine to lose, so don’t give this up.’ ”
In fact, Coburn finished almost eight seconds ahead of Chepkoech, who finished fourth.
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“It wasn’t until the last 600, 400 meters that I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have it, just don’t mess up now.’ ”
A U.S. man last won a steeplechase medal in 1984 (Brian Diemer). Women started competing in Olympic steeplechase in 2008.
Coburn also became the first Olympic medalist coached by Mark Wetmore, the highly successful longtime University of Colorado coach. Another former Buff he coaches, Jenny Simpson, will race in the finals of the 1,500 meters Tuesday night.
“The medal is nice, but more importantly she did everything right,” Wetmore said. “She came up with a plan on how to run the race, she executed the plan exactly how she said she would, she made good decisions out there. The bronze is beautiful, the AR (American record) is beautiful, but it’s always special when they know what they’re doing and make it happen.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
