Kenneth Rooks wins silver – Church News

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USA’s Kenneth Rooks pushed past the pack of runners in the 3,000-meter steeplechase to win silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Wednesday, Aug. 7. The 24-year-old’s time was 8 minutes, 6.41 seconds, a personal best, and six-hundredths of a second ahead of Abraham Kibiwot of Kenya, who won bronze. Kibiwot’s 8:06.47 was a season’s best for him.

Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco, the reigning Olympic champion, won gold with a time of 8:06.05, also a season’s best.

The 3,000-meter steeplechase is 7.5 laps with barriers and a water jump on each lap.

Kenneth Rooks, of the United States, reacts crossing the finish line to win the silver medal in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. | Ashley Landis, Associated Press

Rooks, a Latter-day Saint and former BYU distance runner, was near the back of the pack for several laps. He began moving to the front and, on the last lap, surged ahead of the other runners as Bakkali and Kibiwot caught up with him.

Rooks is a returned missionary who served in Uganda and Orem, Utah, and is from Washington state. The former NCAA champion at BYU won the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Trials. During the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, he fell in the finals and came from behind to win the race.

Rooks is one of several athletes with connections to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Athletics (track and field)

Australia’s Peter Bol ran in the men’s 800-meters preliminary qualifying heats on the purple track Wednesday, Aug. 7. The 30-year-old was in the fourth of six heats for the 53 runners. Of the nine in his heat, Bol was seventh, at 1 minute, 47.50 seconds. He was in the middle of the pack of runners for the first 400-meter lap. On the second lap, he surged forward to try to take the lead, but other runners sprinted past him just before the finish line.

The top three runners in each heat automatically move to the semifinals, and all other finishers have the option to race in the repechage round. In the repechage round, there are four heats and the first in each heat plus the next two fastest will advance to the semifinals.

Pieter Sisk, of Belgium, center, competes in the men’s 800-meters heat at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Saint-Denis, France. Peter Bol of Australia, is at left. | Natacha Pisarenko, Associated Press

The repechage round is Thursday, Aug. 8, at noon Paris time, 4 a.m. Mountain time. The semifinals are Friday, Aug. 9, at 11:30 a.m. Paris time, 3:30 a.m. Mountain time, and the finals on Saturday, Aug. 10, at 7:25 p.m. Paris time, 11:25 a.m. Mountain time.

This is Bol’s third Olympics — he ran in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. In Tokyo, he was fourth in the finals. His family is originally from South Sudan and his family emigrated to Australia when he was a child.

Upcoming competitions

Bol is scheduled to run in the 800-meter repechage round on Thursday, Aug. 8 at noon Paris time, 4 a.m. Mountain time.

Team USA’s Conner Mantz, 27, and Clayton Young, 30, will be running the marathon on Saturday, Aug. 20, scheduled for 8 a.m. Paris time, midnight Mountain time.