NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 17 – Faith Kipyegon will travel to Tokyo to defend her 1500m Olympic title after winning the Kenyan trials on Thursday, literally strolling to cross the finish line with a 4:02.10 timing ahead of Winny Chebet.
Kipyegon won the title in Rio in 2016 and will head to Tokyo to try and clinch on to her crown.
“I just needed to come home and compete on home soil and it was a good feeling today come here and win,” Kipyegon who had already attained qualification time stated.
She added; “It was a good race to measure myself up and see how my body feels and I can say I feel I am in good shape. It was a good way to shake off some bit of jet lag after Florence and now the focus is purely to get ready for the Olympics.”
Kipyegon led the race from gun to tape, controlling the tempo but still not enough to push her out of her comfort zone.
At the bell, she was ahead ans rueged upfront with regular competitor Chebet following in her tail. However, there was no snatching first place from her as she cemented her victory and didn’t even show much struggle for it.
It was an encouraging performance coming hot on the heels of setting a personal best and a National record at the Florence leg of the World Athletics Diamond League.