Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 3000 metres steeplechase

The men's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, had an entry list of 33 competitors, with three qualifying heats (33 runners) and two semifinals (26) before the final (13) took place on Friday September 30, 1988.[1]

Men's 3000 metres steeplechase at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	26 September 1988 (heats) 28 September 1988 (semi-finals) 30 September 1988 (final)
Competitors	32 from 24 nations
Winning time	8:05.51 OR
Medalists
Julius Kariuki  Kenya Peter Koech  Kenya Mark Rowland  Great Britain

Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men	women
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men
4×100 m relay	men	women
4×400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men	women
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Heptathlon		women
Decathlon	men
Wheelchair races

From the gun Francesco Panetta went out hard, at world record pace the first few laps. He was marked, a few metres back, by William Van Dijck with the rest of the field strung out behind. With about three laps to go, Kenyans Julius Kariuki and Peter Koech seemed to jog casually into position next to Van Dijck with Mark Rowland gamely holding on. From behind Alessandro Lambruschini and Patrick Sang rushed to catch up. With two laps to go, the Kenyan duo broke it open, with Panetta disappearing back into the field. Rowland was the only one to hang on to the Kenyans, who were looking around for the other challengers. With the three-man break clear and one lap to go, Kariuki departed from the team tactics and took off, opening up a 10-metre lead around the penultimate turn with Koech chasing. Kariuki took the water jump carefully; behind him, Koech hurdled the water pit and emphasized his separation on Rowland. Koech was able to make a little ground on Kariuki, but it was too little too late. Rowland had 20 metres on Lambruschini for bronze and a new British record. After the race, Rowland said "I just kept telling myself to dig, dig, dig—and I did it! I've got a bloody medal!"[2]