Winfred Yavi


Winfred Mutile Yavi is a Kenyan-born Bahraini female athlete who specialises in the 3000 metres steeplechase. Currently the second fastest athlete in history at the distance with a personal best of 8:44.39, she won the 2024 Summer Olympics – Women's [3000 metres">Athletics at the 2024 Summer Olympics">2024 Summer Olympics – Women's [3000 metres steeplechase|gold medal] at the 2024 Summer Olympics, setting a new Olympic record. She won the gold medal at the 2023 [World Athletics Championships].

Career

Yavi hails from Ukia, Makueni County. Born in Kenya, Winfred Yavi transferred her allegiance to Bahrain at the age of fifteen, becoming eligible to compete for her adopted nation in August 2016. She competed in the 3000 m steeplechase at the 2017 [World Championships in Athletics|2017 World Championships] at the age of 17, and finished eighth in a personal best time of 9:22.67. Yavi was the bronze medallist in her specialist event at the 2018 World Under-20 Championships. She also improved her personal best significantly in 2018, running 9:10.74 at the Monaco Diamond League.
In 2019, Yavi won gold in both the 5000 m and 3000 m steeplechase, as well as a bronze in the 1500 m at the 2019 [Asian Athletics Championships]. She set a new personal best of 9:07.23 in finishing third at the British [Grand Prix (athletics)|Müller Grand Prix]. She finished fourth in the 3000 m steeplechase at the 2019 World Championships held in Doha. She won a gold medal in the 3000 m steeplechase and a silver medal in the 5000 m at the World Military Games.
Yavi ran a new personal best of 9:02.64 in finishing third at the 2021 Doha Diamond League. She finished tenth in the final at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In 2022, Yavi ran her first sub-9 minute 3000 m steeplechase at the Prefontaine Classic, running a time of 8:58.71. She followed this up by winning the Paris Diamond League with a time of 8:56.55. She finished fourth in the final at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene.
The following year, Yavi won gold in her specialty event at the 2023 World Championships with a personal best time of 8:54.29. She went onto win at the Zurich Diamond League, and the Prefontaine Classic where she improved her personal best to 8:50.66, the second fastest time in history at the time. Yavi ended her season by winning gold in both the 1500 m and 3000 m steeplechase at the Asian Games.
In June 2024, Yavi set a new 5000 m personal best of 14:41.99 in Liège. She won gold in the 3000 m steeplechase at the 2024 Paris Olympics in an Olympic record time of 8:52.76. She won at the Rome Diamond League in a time of 8:44.39, breaking her own national record by over 6 seconds and only missing out on the world record by 0.07 seconds. Yavi went on to place second at the Diamond League final in Brussels, finishing behind Faith Cherotich.

Statistics

All information from World Athletics profile.

Personal bests

Circuit wins