Yavi’s Gold Quest Returns to Asian Games

Three-time Asian Games champion Winfred Yavi will lead Bahrain’s 34-strong athletics team in Japan next month as the Kingdom goes after another big medal tally on the track.

The 26-year-old heads a Bahrain Olympic Committee list featuring 17 men and 17 women, with 400m ace Salwa Eid Naser, former steeplechase world champion Ruth Jebet, Birhanu Balew and Abbas Yusuf amongst the medal-proven names picked for Japan.

The 20th Asian Games run from September 19 to October 4 across Aichi and Nagoya, with Bahrain seeking another strong showing after a rich return in Hangzhou three years ago and Japan now the next frontier.

Yavi will be one of its biggest hopes.

She heads towards Japan in fine form after winning the women’s 3,000m steeplechase at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday in 9:00.04. Her run broke the meeting record and put reigning world champion Faith Cherotich of Kenya second in 9:01.90.

Yavi has already gone much quicker this year, clocking 8:51.54 in Xiamen in May. Her career best of 8:44.39, run in Rome in 2024, ranks her second on the all-time list.

Yavi was already looking beyond Olympic gold after Paris. In her first interview with The Daily Tribune after the win, she said her next aim was to break the world record at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The record did not fall, but Yavi still left Tokyo with world silver after running 8:56.46 behind Cherotich. Their battle has carried into this season, with the Bahraini beating the Kenyan in Lausanne.

Another big test comes before Japan.

Yavi is due to race at the Diamond League Final in Brussels on September 4, where Cherotich and Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai are also expected on the start line.

Then comes a stage Yavi knows well.

She has won the Asian Games 3,000m steeplechase at each of the past two editions, taking gold in Jakarta in 2018 in 9:36.52 before defending her crown at Hangzhou in 2023.

Hangzhou brought double gold. Yavi won the 1,500m in 4:11.65, then struck again in the steeplechase with a Games record of 9:18.28.

She now has three Asian Games gold medals and could chase a third straight steeplechase crown in Japan. Should Bahrain also enter her in the 1,500m, she would have the chance to defend both titles won in Hangzhou.

Bahrain finished ninth in the overall medal table at the 2023 Games and first among Arab countries, taking 20 medals, including 12 gold, three silver and five bronze.