EUGENE, Ore. — Portland resident Evan Jager finished sixth in the final of the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase for Team USA at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene Monday night.
Jager, 33, went to Portland State and currently lives in Portland, where he runs with the Bowerman Track Club. In Monday's final, he placed sixth with a time of 8:29.08.
He came in just over 4 seconds behind the first-place winner, Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali, who ran it in 8:25.13. Ethiopia's Lamecha Girma came in second at 8:26.01 and Kenya's Conseslus Kipruto came in third at 8:27.92. Click here to see the full results.
Jager is the American record holder in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, with a time of 8:00:45 that he set in 2015. In 2016, at the Rio Olympics, he won silver, the first steeplechase medal for a member of Team USA in 32 years. Then at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London, Jager won bronze.
He missed part of the 2018 season and all of the 2019 season because of a stress fracture and after the 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic, Jager was unable to compete in the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in 2021 because of a calf injury.
But Jager came back strong this season, including a second-place finish at the ASATF Outdoor Championships. On Friday, he finished second in his semifinal heat to give him a spot in Monday's steeplechase final.
Prior to Monday's race, Jager talked to the Register-Guard talked about his mindset prior to the final.
"Hoping for a medal if everything goes well, but kinda running to do as best as I can," he said. "But at the same time, I have been at the top at this level. Even though it's been awhile since I've been there, that athlete is still in me deep down somewhere. So you never know what can happen."
