Kenya’s Kipyegon sets women’s 1,500m world record

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon poses with the screen as she sets a new world record and wins the women’s 1500m final.
Photo: reuters

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon has set a women’s 1500 metres world record by clocking 3:49.11 at the third Diamond League meeting of the season in Florence on Friday.

Kipyegon, winner of the last two Olympic 1500m golds and the 2017 and 2022 world titles, bettered the previous mark of 3:50.07 set by Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba in 2015.

The Kenyan finished well ahead of Britain’s second-placed Laura Muir and Australian Jessica Hull in third, with Kipyegon’s rivals crowding around to congratulate her after the race.

“I’m so happy for Faith,” Muir said.

“I would have loved to be closer to her. But for the first race of the season this is really decent. I have never gone through the first 800m as fast as today.”

Muir was 10 metres behind Kenya’s reigning world and Olympic champion, 29, heading into the final lap.

But Kipyegon streaked clear to win in 3 minutes 49.11 seconds, breaking the 3:50 barrier for the first time, while Muir ran a season’s best of 3:57.09.

Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba set the previous record of 3:50.07 in 2015.

Kipyegon has won both world and Olympic gold on two occasions but this is the first time she has broken the world record.

She now holds the first and third fastest times in history, running her previous best of 3:50.37 last August.

-BBC