NAIROBI, Kenya, July 7 – Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon brought the globe to its feet once again when she smashed the women’s 1500m world record at the Paris Diamond League on Sunday evening.
Kipyegon clocked 3:49.04 to clinch first place, ahead of Australia’s Jessica Hull who timed a personal best of 3:50.83 in second.
Great Britain’s Laura Muir clocked a personal best of 3:53.79 to cross the finish line in third.
This is the fourth time the two-time Olympics 1500m champion has broken a world record in just less than a year.
Speaking after the race, Kipyegon said her belief has always been sky-high despite her injury struggles for the majority of the year.
“It feels amazing to break the world rcord. I am in the right direction towards the Paris Olympics. I have come from far because of the injury and recovering. After the trials I knew that I was in world record shape, I have run the quickest time in Kenya with the altitude. It showed me that I was capable of breaking the world record again,” the world 5000m champion said.
The Paris race is her second of the year, having only just returned from injury woes.
She began her season in storming fashion, clocking 3:53.98 at last month’s national trials for the Olympics in Paris.
Kipyegon paid homage to Hull, noting that the Australian had pushed her all the way to the world record.
“We just tried, because everything is possible. Jessica was really good, I felt that she was behind me and I had to be careful because you never know if something can happen. But I just relaxed and ran my race. I knew that she is strong because she has broken the area record many times,” she said.
In June last year, she timed 3:49.11 at the Florence Diamond League to succeed Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba as the world’s fastest woman in the history of the race.
She then followed it up with a world record of 14:05.20 in the women’s 5000m at the Paris Diamond League, which was soon bettered by Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay who clocked 14:00.21 in Oregon.
The two-time world 1500m champion is also the mile world record holder, having clocked 4:07.64 at the Monaco Diamond League in France in July.
Kipyegon will also be representing the country in the women’s 5000m at this month’s Paris Games.
She is hopeful for more of the same crowd support when she returns to the French capital for the quadrennial games.
“The crowd was really cheerful, that was why the energy was so strong, it is really pushing us towards the finish line. With my injuy I was really scared, because I didn’t know if I was going to make it. But I took my time and trusted my team and stayed out of competition for long. I will absolutely do the double in Paris, in the 1500m and 5000m,” Kipyegon said.
Another Kenyan in the race, Susan Ejore, warmed up for her Olympics debut with a sixth place finish courtesy of a personal best of 3:57.26.
