Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's 3000 metres steeplechase

The Men's 3000 metres steeplechase at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 16–18 August at the Beijing Olympic Stadium. The winning margin was 0.15 seconds which as of 2024 remains the only time the men's steeplechase was won by less than 0.3 seconds at the Olympics.

Men's 3000 metres steeplechase at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Venue	Beijing National Stadium
Dates	August 16 (heats) August 18 (final)
Competitors	40 from 27 nations
Medalists
Brimin Kiprop Kipruto  Kenya Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad  France Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong  Kenya

The qualifying standards were 8:24.60 (A standard) and 8:32.00 (B standard).

Brimin Kipruto, who won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, became the seventh Kenyan runner in a row to win this event at the Olympics. In total Kenya won nine gold medals in the 3000m steeplechase since 1968, but none of those medalists was ever able to defend his title.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world record, Olympic record, and world leading time were as follows:

World record	Saif Saaeed Shaheen (QAT)	7:53.63	Brussels, Belgium	3 September 2004
Olympic record	Julius Kariuki (KEN)	8:05.51	Seoul, South Korea	30 September 1988
World Leading	Paul Kipsiele Koech (KEN)	8:00.57	Heusden-Zolder, Belgium	20 July 2008

No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.

Results

Round 1

Heat	Position	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
1	1	Bouabdellah Tahri	France	8:23.42	Q
1	2	Brimin Kiprop Kipruto	Kenya	8:23.53	Q
1	3	Abdelkader Hachlaf	Morocco	8:23.62	Q
1	4	Tareq Mubarak Taher	Bahrain	8:23.66	Q
1	5	Nahom Mesfin	Ethiopia	8:23.82
1	6	Ildar Minshin	Russia	8:26.85
1	7	Tomasz Szymkowiak	Poland	8:29.37
1	8	Rabia Makhloufi	Algeria	8:29.74
1	9	Yoshitaka Iwamizu	Japan	8:29.80
1	10	Valērijs Žolnerovičs	Latvia	8:37.65
1	11	Alberto Paulo	Portugal	8:39.11
1	12	Rubén Palomeque	Spain	8:58.50
1		Matteo Villani	Italy	DNF
2	1	Yacob Jarso	Ethiopia	8:16.88	Q, PB
2	2	Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad	France	8:16.95	Q, SB
2	3	Anthony Famiglietti	United States	8:17.34	Q, PB
2	4	Ezekiel Kemboi	Kenya	8:17.55	Q
2	5	Mustafa Mohamed	Sweden	8:17.80	q
2	6	Youcef Abdi	Australia	8:17.97	q, PB
2	7	Ion Luchianov	Moldova	8:18.97	q, NR
2	8	Boštjan Buc	Slovenia	8:21.24
2	9	Brahim Taleb	Morocco	8:23.09
2	10	Andrew Lemoncello	Great Britain	8:36.06
2	11	William Nelson	United States	8:36.66
2	12	José Luis Blanco	Spain	8:37.37
2	13	Ali Ahmed Al-Amri	Saudi Arabia	9:09.73
2		Jukka Keskisalo	Finland	DNS
3	1	Ruben Ramolefi	South Africa	8:19.86	Q, PB
3	2	Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong	Kenya	8:19.87	Q
3	3	Benjamin Kiplagat	Uganda	8:20.22	Q
3	4	Abubaker Ali Kamal	Qatar	8:21.85	Q
3	5	Eliseo Martín	Spain	8:23.19	SB
3	6	Hamid Ezzine	Morocco	8:27.45
3	7	Vincent Zouaoui Dandrieaux	France	8:27.91
3	8	Roba Gary	Ethiopia	8:28.27
3	9	Joshua McAdams	United States	8:33.26
3	10	Pavel Potapovich	Russia	8:36.29
3	11	Pieter Desmet	Belgium	8:37.99
3	12	Halil Akkaş	Turkey	8:44.70
3	13	Itai Maggidi	Israel	9:05.02

Legend: Q=Qualified top 4 in heat; q=Qualified by time; DNF=Did not finish; DNS=Did not start; DQ=Disqualified; NR=National record; PB=Personal best; SB=Season best

Final

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time	Notes
	Brimin Kiprop Kipruto	Kenya	8:10.34	SB
	Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad	France	8:10.49	PB
	Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong	Kenya	8:11.01
4	Yacob Jarso	Ethiopia	8:13.47	NR
5	Bouabdellah Tahri	France	8:14.79
6	Youcef Abdi	Australia	8:16.36	PB
7	Ezekiel Kemboi	Kenya	8:16.38
8	Abubaker Ali Kamal	Qatar	8:16.59
9	Benjamin Kiplagat	Uganda	8:20.27
10	Mustafa Mohamed	Sweden	8:20.69
11	Tareq Mubarak Taher	Bahrain	8:21.59
12	Ion Luchianov	Moldova	8:27.82
13	Anthony Famiglietti	United States	8:31.21
14	Ruben Ramolefi	South Africa	8:34.58
15	Abdelkader Hachlaf	Morocco	9:02.06

Splits

Intermediate	Athlete	Country	Mark
1000m	Ruben Ramolefi	South Africa	2:46.97
2000m	Mustafa Mohamed	Sweden	5:33.84