Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon put an outstanding show at Friday’s Florence Diamond League competition, nearly nine months after just missing the 1,500 metres world record by three hundredths of a second.
In Monaco in 2022, Ethiopian middle-distance runner Genzebe Dibaba’s record of 3:50.07 set in 2015 was slightly missed by double Olympic and world champion Kipyegon, who finished in 3:50.37.
After her near hit, Kipyegon, 29, expressed her disappointment to Olympics.com, saying, “…after the finish line, I thought I got the world record. That’s why I went down and slept a little bit, knowing that I got it. But later I saw the screen and it was really disappointing.”
Kipyegon, though, did not relent on Friday, persevering long after she had left her competitors in the dust to finish in 3:49.11, nearly a full second quicker than Dibaba’s record. After this victory, Kipyegon said, “When I crossed the finish line, I knew I broke the world record because I had a good finish and felt very strong at the end. I knew everything was possible. After 1,000, when the pacemaker went out, I just pushed myself towards the finish line. And that was what my manager told me – anything is possible – after the pacemaker, just run your race”.
The Kenyan trailed the pacesetters for the first half of the race before racing ahead in the final 300 metres to finish far in front of Laura Muir of Britain and Jessica Hull of Australia.
The world record add in to Kipyegon’s list of accomplishments, joining her two 1,500m Olympic gold medals, world titles in 2017 and 2022, gold medal from the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and three Diamond League victories.
“This was really important because this was something I was still missing in my career. Getting this, it will really motivate me and I left the legacy for the next generation – they can say she broke the world record, she was the Olympic and the world champion. It was amazing tonight,” Kipyegon said.
