Athletics at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Men's 3000 metres steeplechase

These are the official results of the men's 3000 metres steeplechase event at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. There were a total number of 33 participating athletes, with four qualifying heats.[1]

Men's 3000 metres steeplechase at the Games of the XXV Olympiad
Venue	Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc
Dates	3 August 1992 (heats) 5 August 1992 (semi-finals) 7 August 1992 (final)
Competitors	32 from 24 nations
Winning time	8:08.84
Medalists
Matthew Birir  Kenya Patrick Sang  Kenya William Mutwol  Kenya

Athletics at the 1992 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
10 km walk		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

At the gun, it seemed like the rest of the world came to run, while the Kenyan team were just tagging along. Starting off slowly, all three Kenyans casually jogged around the outside of the pack and towards the front. William Mutwol continued, breaking away to as much as a 10-metre lead, with Elarbi Khattabi the only one to bridge the gap. On the next lap, Matthew Birir, running in fourth place, went down on the track, but Birir righted himself quickly and was back on his feet before the back of the strung out field had passed him. Within two more barriers, he was back in the same fourth-place position. By the time they reached the same spot on the track where Birir fell, he was in third place as the tail of the three man Kenyan breakaway. Over the next two laps, the only athlete seriously marking the Kenyans was Alessandro Lambruschini. Just after two laps to go, Patrick Sang edged ahead of Mutwol with Lambruschini gaining a little ground between barriers and losing the same amount each time he went over one. With a lap to go, Birir moved into the lead and the Kenyan sweep simply pulled away from Lambruschini, with the rest of the field already disappeared behind. No drama, no hurdling the water jump, no challenges, not even any sprinting. Lambruschini finished fourth for the second Olympics in a row, more than 25 metres behind Mutwol.