Myrtleford Olympian Ben Buckingham runs fourth fastest time by an Australian in 3000m steeplechase

He delivered that in spades with the fourth fastest time by an Australian in the 3000m men's steeplechase in Tokyo on Friday.

The distance specialist's effort of 8.20.95 was a four-second personal best as he finished seventh in heat three and was just a second outside earning a place in the 15-man final on Monday night at 22^nd overall out of 45 competitors.

It was an improvement of 20 places for the 42^nd fastest qualifier for the Games and booked him a place at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA, as well as spot on the Australian team for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

The 29-year-old crafted a patient race towards the back of the field but began to make his move inside the final 1000 metres when he tracked the run of second-place finisher Topi Raitanen, of Finland, and remained in contention until the last 200 metres.

However, it was a nervous wait for Buckingham who was provisionally disqualified for a lane infringement, but his protest was successful to allow the time to stand.

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In an interview post-race, Buckingham said he ran the way he wanted to.

"I followed the moves and it was really tough in that last k (kilometre), but I was still there with 200 to go," he said.

"It wasn't quite good enough, but I can walk off proud. My coach wanted me to walk off and say 'that was your best effort' and I can say that.

"We left qualification a bit late on world ranking, but it paid off.

"I ran the performance I knew I had in me. About 8.20 and I'm really proud.

"I saved energy and tracked the guy who came second, so I had the right plan.

"I wanted to come here and have a strong performance and walk off proud and I've done that. I'm really happy.

"To run a PB and qualify for world championships at the Olympics, I can't ask for anything else."

Shaun Creighton (8.16.22 in 1993), Youcef Abdi (8.16.36 in 2008) and Ed Trippas (8.19.60 in 2021) are the only Australians to have run the gruelling event faster than Buckingham.

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