PARIS - Olympic champion Ruth Jebet of Bahrain smashed the world record in the 3,000m steeplechase, clocking 8min 52.78sec at the Diamond League meet in Paris on Saturday.
Bahrain's women's 3000m steeplchase runner Ruth Jebet competes at the IAAF Diamond League athletics meeting in Saint-Denis, near Paris, on August 27, 2016
The 19-year-old Kenyan-born athlete, who now runs for Bahrain, obliterated the previous record of 8:58.81 achieved by Russian Gulnara Galkina at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Jebet won Olympic gold in Rio with 8:59.75, the second fastest time ever in the event, having also clocked 8:59.97 at the Eugene meet in the United States last May.
Only Galkina and Jebet have ever dipped below the nine-minute mark in the event.