Athletics at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games:

This was the inaugural steeplechase event at the Olympics for women, but the event had been held at the World Championships in 2005 and 2007. In the heats the newness of the event was evident when one runner fell face-first into the water jump. The 2007 champion was Yekaterina Volkova but the world record holder was her teammate Gulnara Samitova-Galkina, who had set it back in 2004. Samitova-Galkina had run at the Athina Olympics in the 5K, placing sixth. In the final, Samitova-Galkina took the lead early and pulled along four other runners – Tatyana Petrova (RUS), Eunice Jepkorir (KEN), Ruth Bisibori (KEN), and Zemzem Ahmed (ETH). After 1,000 metres only Petrova and Jepkorir remained with Samitova-Galkina, but at 2K, she was running alone. She won by half the final straight in 8:58.81, a world record, and became the first woman to break 9-minutes for the steeple. Jepkorir held on for the silver medal. Volkova had not been a factor early, but caught the chase group at the bell, and was able to pull away for the bronze medal.