Geordie Beamish’s run to the steeple title featured spikes to his face in his heat and a bullet-train finish in the final. (KEVIN MORRIS)
HE WAS THE ’24 World Indoor 1500 champion and an 8:09 steeple talent with a promising 5th from Budapest ’23 — coming less than 6 months after taking up the event.
But Geordie Beamish has had so many injury issues and had raced so infrequently in ’25 that his name was not to be found on any formcharts for Tokyo. Then in the final lap of his heat, the New Zealander took a fall so nasty that he received an accidental spike to the face from Canada’s Jean-Simon Desgagnés. What was even more amazing, however, was the way Beamish rolled back to his feet and whipped right past almost everyone else to finish 2nd.
So maybe it shouldn’t have been surprising what he was able to do 2 days later. In the slowest final in meet history, Beamish was 11th with 300 to go and 6th at the final waterjump, but dashed past everyone (13.70 final 100; 42.68 final 300) — including 2-time defending champ Soufiane El Bakkali — to grab the gold.
The 8:33.88 put him 0.07 ahead of the Moroccan, while 17-year-old Edmund Serum of Kenya — with a 13.90 kick — won bronze in 8:34.56. El Bakkali, attempting to win his fifth straight global title, was in tears after Beamish edged him, but he recovered enough later to share a bath in the water pit with the gold medalist.
What few knew besides his training partners, coach Dathan Ritzenhein — and perhaps devotees of his Coffee Club Podcast — was that the oft-injured Beamish came into Tokyo finally feeling good, really good.
The Northern Arizona alum had begun to recover from a string of injuries and, within the past month, hit his stride again:. “I knew the fitness was good, but more importantly, like my body was good for the first time since Prefontaine of last year… there were a couple days during practice where I actually felt like I’m remembering what it feels like to feel good again.”
Even more telling was his take on his prelim mishap. “I think that was a blessing in disguise,” he said. “It felt so easy going by everyone again, that I almost felt like that gave me more confidence in my fitness.”
The early pace could hardly have been more pedestrian. German 8:01 performer Frederik Ruppert, Serum and American Daniel Michalski fronted a group content to wait. The first kilo went in 3:04.78, with El Bakkali dead last; the second only slightly faster at 6:01.38.
A minute later, Michalski burst ahead, passing 2400 in 7:04.20. After the bell, WR-holder Lamecha Girma surged ahead, down the straight and toward the final waterjump before El Bakkali made his one big move. But while Beamish’s final splash “wasn’t great,” his sprint that followed could not be matched: “I found some clear air with 100 to go and just put on the gas.”
The final was missing American Kenneth Rooks — 11th in the second heat. He noted a few relatively minor health and injury recovery issues but said he actually felt more ready than he did in Paris, where he had won silver. “There’s more I need to process,” he said. “I have some ideas of what it might be… but I want to do some reflection and talk to my coach.”
MEN’S STEEPLE RESULTS
FINAL (September 15)
1. Geordie Beamish (NZ) 8:33.88
(13.70, 28.70, 57.16, 1:58.88);
2. Soufiane El Bakkali (Mor) 8:33.95
(14.57, 29.34, 58.43, 1:59.08);
3. Edmund Serem (Ken) 8:34.56
(13.90, 29.36, 59.87, 2:00.68) (3:04.47);
4. Samuel Firewu (Eth) 8:34.68
(14.28, 29.66, 59.24, 2:00.64);
5. Salaheddine Ben Yazide (Mor) 8:35.16
(14.47, 29.77, 58.93, 2:00.56);
6. Lamecha Girma (Eth) 8:35.60
(15.71, 31.40, 60.48, 2:01.23);
7. Nicolas Daru (Fra) 8:35.77;
8. Ryuji Miura (Jpn) 8:35.90;
9. Daniel Michalski (US) 8:37.12 (16.44, 32.22, 61.99, 2:03.52); 10. Ruben Querinjean (Lux) 8:37.49; 11. Ahmed Jaziri (Tun) 8:39.30; 12. Frederik Ruppert (Ger) 8:39.83 (6:01.14); 13. Jean-Simon Desgagnés (Can) 8:39.96; 14. Getnet Wale (Eth) 8:41.23; 15. Niklas Buchholz (Ger) 8:42.81;… dnf—Abraham Kibiwott (Ken).
HEATS (September 13)
I–1. Serem 8:29.97; 2. Wale 8:30.14; 3. Miura 8:30.43; 4. Daru 8:30.64; 5. Jaziri 8:31.41; 6. Karl Bebendorf (Ger) 8:32.27; 7. Ala Zoghlami (Ita) 8:32.65; 8. Isaac Updike (US) 8:33.46; 9. Mohammed Tindoufti (Mor) 8:35.73; 10. Alejandro Quijada (Spa) 8:42.30; 11. Mostafa El Faid (Mor) 8:44.10; 12. Edward Trippas (Aus) 8:46.51.
II–1. Ben Yazide 8:27.21; 2. Beamish 8:27.23; 3. Firewu 8:27.54; 4. Ruppert 8:27.83; 5. Kibiwott 8:27.84; 6. Mohamed Amine Jihnaoui (Tun) 8:27.89; 7. Louis Gilavert (Fra) 8:28.90; 8. Leo Magnusson (Swe) 8:31.66; 9. Leonard Chemutai (Uga) 8:33.24; 10. Desgagnés 8:36.58 (advanced on appeal); 11. Kenneth Rooks (US) 8:45.57; 12. Nahuel Carabaña (And) 8:49.01.
III–1. El Bakkali 8:26.99; 2. Girma 8:27.79; 3. Michalski 8:28.76; 4. Querinjean 8:29.42; 5. Buchholz 8:29.53; 6. Vidar Johansson (Swe) 8:31.31; 7. Simon Koech (Ken) 8:31.80; 8. Djilali Bedrani (Fra) 8:35.50; 9. Etson Barros (Por) 8:38.58; 10. Carlos Andrés San Martín (Col) 9:02.20; 11. Tim Van De Velde (Bel) 9:02.21;… dnf—Daniel Arce (Spa).
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