n Saturday, September 5, at the Boudewijnstadion in Brussels, Soufiane El Bakkali lost the Diamond League 3,000m steeplechase final. The double Olympic champion finished second in 8:10.03, behind Ethiopia’s Gemechu Godana, who won in 8:08.67.
Kenya’s Simon Koech completed the podium in 8:11.15. The other Moroccan in the field, Salah Eddine Ben Yazide, did not finish.
The race turned on the final lap, when Godana, twenty years old, hardened the pace and the Moroccan stopped answering. The Diamond Trophy escapes him, and he had won only one until now.
The steeplechase hierarchy, long settled by a single man, has just opened up. It is at the major championships that El Bakkali will answer a generation that no longer lets him run alone.
Photo: Johann Conus, CC BY-SA 4.0.
World Athletics — Official results, men’s 3000 metres steeplechase, Allianz Memorial van Damme, Brussels, 4 and 5 September 2026.
Wanda Diamond League — Soufiane El Bakkali result table.
World Athletics — Soufiane El Bakkali profile and honours.
