After shattering three world records in under two months, all eyes are on Kenyan runner Faith Kipyegon, who’s focused on defending her 1500m world title. Tonight, at the World Championships in Budapest, she steps onto the track, alongside GB’s Laura Muir, for the 1500m final.
Regarded by many as the greatest female 1500m runner of all time, this summer the double Olympic champion broke three track world records across three different track distances. Kipyegon broke the 1500m world record - lowering it to 3:49.11- in June. Just a week later, she broke the women’s 5000m world record in a time of 14 minutes 5.20 seconds at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.
Remarkably consistent, Kipyegon’s dominance has been evident in the last five World Championships and Olympic Games, dating back to 2016. Throughout this period, the 29-year-old has only missed out on gold once, when the 2019 Doha World Championships took place 15 months after Kipyegon gave birth to her daughter. That day, she still took silver, just behind Sifan Hassan but in front of Gudaf Tsegay, who won gold a few days ago at the 10,000m.
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After the semi-finals in Budapest on Sunday, Kipyegon was full of confidence, saying: ‘After that race, we expect gold, the two Kenyans to make the podium. I am just coming here to defend my title.’ Though clearly confident, she's far from arrogant, and is hugely liked on the athletics circuit. After her recent world records, her rivals were the first to rush over to congratulate her, and take pictures with her.
The 1500m is the first of Kipyegon’s two events in Hungary – not only is she looking to defend her, but she’s also chasing her first-ever 5000m global title.
‘Faith has moved into that world now,’ former world and Olympic medallist and BBC Sport commentator Steve Cram tells the RW Podcast. ‘Faith has embraced this endurance part of her – which was always there – but she’s been an out-and-out 1500m runner. Whereas now, or for the last 18 months, she’s been working on higher mileage, higher tempo, better tempo, and has really brought that, as we saw, to great effect at the longer distances, so I struggle to see how you’d beat Faith Kipyegon.’
The question is: as she takes her place on the starting line tonight, could she shave off a few more seconds from her record 1500m time, or will it be a classic championship race, with a super slow start and a crazy last lap? Whatever happens, Kipyegon is certainly in the best shape of her life, so now it’s all down to how she manages the pressure of expectations ahead of going for gold.
Watch the 1,500m women’s final at 20:30 tonight on BBC1
