3000 m steeplechase

Seven and a half laps with 35 obstacles: 28 barriers and seven water jumps. The barriers are 0.914 metres high for men and 0.762 metres for women, and unlike hurdles they do not give way, so runners either clear them or step on top. The water jump is a barrier followed by a 3.66-metre pit that slopes from 70 centimetres deep up to track level; most runners push off the barrier with one foot and land near the far edge, in a few centimetres of water. Rhythm over the obstacles matters as much as fitness, and a runner who arrives at a barrier on the wrong foot loses a stride every time. No wind reading applies, and the water jump sits on the inside or the outside of the bend depending on the stadium.