Evan Jager looks strong in steeplechase comeback at World Track and FIeld Championships

Evan Jager should be pleased with his performance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the World Track and Field Championships.

Jager, nagged by injuries that held him out of racing for almost four years, was back near the lead early Monday night in the steeplechase final at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Jager, a 2007 Jacobs High School graduate from Algonquin, finished in sixth place in a tight field, a solid showing after what he battled through since 2018.

Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali, last year’s Olympics champion in Tokyo, became the first from his country to win a world steeplechase title, taking first in 8:25.13. He was followed by Ethopia’s Lamecha Girma (8:25.99) and Kenya’s Conseslus Kipruto (8:27.84).

Ethopia’s Getnet Wale (8:28.63), Kenya’s Abraham Kobiwot (8:28.95) and Jager (8:29.08) held the next three spots.

Jager was the 2016 Olympics silver medalist, one second behind Kipruto, in Rio de Janeiro. In 2018, a hip flexor injury in his left leg led to multiple problems that kept Jager from racing until this year.

At the U.S. championships, he qualified in second place behind Hillary Bor, who was eighth on Monday.

Jager admitted he had modest expectations after so much time off, but looked at times like his old self as he stuck in the top six most of the race. He fell back a bit in the pack in the final lap but finished strong.

“I’m not expecting to medal,” Jager said recently. “I have to go in and feel things out and try to run my best. I’m not going to be taking the lead and trying to run away from everyone in the race. I’m going to be doing what’s best for me on that day to place as high as I can.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the 2020 Olympics back one year, the world championships will be held this year and next year (worlds normally run in odd-numbered years). That gives Jager, 33, a worlds competition next year, the 2024 Olympics and the 2025 worlds, at which time he will be 36.

“One of my first thoughts after the U.S. champs was that I was feeling like I’m fully healthy again,” Jager said. “Getting second and making the team and hitting the standard after not steepling for basically four years, and not feeling like myself for 99% of that time, I feel like it’s really, really good momentum for me going forward. It got me excited for how I can build on that and keep making progress for next year as long as I can stay healthy.”