Faith Kipyegon has won it all in the 1500m. Two-time world champion and two-time Olympic champion, the Kenyan made history forever by breaking the world record for the distance on Friday 2 June in Florence.
Faith Kipyegon is the undisputed queen of the 1500m. She has not suffered a defeat over this distance since the Doha World Championships in 2019. At that time, she finished second behind Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan. Since then, she has reigned over this distance. Double world and Olympic champion, Kipyegon had the world record in her sights.
In Monaco, Kipyegon set the second fastest time in the history of the 1500m in 3:50:37. She was just three-tenths off Genzebe Dibaba's 3:50:07. The Ethiopian clocked the same time in the Principality in 2015. Kipyegon didn't hide his disappointment after this race: "After the finish line, I thought I had the world record. That's why I went downstairs and slept for a while, thinking I'd got it. But later I saw the screen and it was really disappointing."
Since then, Faith Kipyegon had promised to break the world record for the distance. "The 1500 m world record is not unbeatable", she said. This Friday in Florence, on the 2nd leg of the Diamond League, the Kenyan legend kept her promise. She beat Dibaba's world record of 3:49:11. The Kenyan now holds the first and third fastest times in the history of the distance.
And she has no intention of stopping there. I said yesterday that I wanted to run a good race, run my race and see what's possible, and it was possible," she exclaimed. There's still more to come. I'm still working on running faster than that, faster than 3mn49s. I'm really grateful today that I managed to run 3mn49s and I'm still heading for some great races in the rest of the season."
Kipyegon will now focus on the 5000m in Paris next week before returning to Kenya to perfect her training for another record attempt at the Herculis meeting in Monaco in July.
