Faith Kipyegon warned there is more to come after adding the women’s 1500m world record to a stellar career path that has already seen her bag two world and two Olympic golds over the distance.
The 29-year-old Kenyan clocked 3:49.11 in Florence on Friday to shatter the previous record of 3:50.07 set by Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba in Monaco in 2015.
Kipyegon, considered the greatest ever woman in the discipline, crushed the rest of the field in Tuscany, finishing more than eight seconds ahead of reigning European champion Laura Muir, while Jessica Hull set an Australian and Oceania record of 3:57.29 in third.
Coming into the Golden Gala meeting, Kipyegon had said that the world record was in her heart and on her mind.
And she duly delivered at the third leg of the Diamond League circuit in a city that last saw a world record when World Athletics president Sebastian Coe broke the 800m mark there in 1981.
“I said yesterday that I wanted to run a beautiful race, run my race, and see what is possible, and this was possible,” said Kipyegon, who came agonisingly close to breaking the record at the Monaco Diamond League meet last year.
Aided by wavelight technology, whereby lights light up around the track to show world record pace, the race’s pacemakers had been asked to take the field through in 3:54 pace.
It looked ambitious on a damp track after early rain, but that pace merely left Kipyegon full of running when she took the lead in the penultimate lap, as she blazed through the final 600m at unprecedented speed.
REF: AFP
