Florence Italy/Kenya (Commonwealth Union)_When Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon crossed that finish line in the 1500-meter race at the Florence Diamond League, it was the moment when she wiped her slate clean from the disappointment of just one year ago. Winning by three-hundredths of a second, Kipyegon triumphed in breaking the record at 3 minutes 49.11 seconds, almost one entire second faster than the earlier record set in 2015.
In Monaco last year, the double Olympic champion came very close to breaking the existing record of 3 minutes 50.07 seconds set by Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba. However, she narrowly missed breaking the record, crossing the finish line at 3 minutes 50.37. Kipyegon had assumed she had broken the record and was quite jubilant before seeing the screen and realizing she had missed the record by a hairline.
Determined to get it right this time, Kipyegon kept going, using up all her stamina and keeping her eye on that tape, leaving a trail of her competitors behind. Optimizing on that adrenaline rush that had been her magic potion throughout the race, Kipyegon took her coach’s advice that ‘anything is possible’, pushing herself in the last 500 meters of the race when the pacemaker went out at 1,000 meters. Breaking the tape with a flourish, she left behind Britain’s Laura Muir who ran a season’s best of 3 minutes 57.09, at a distant second.
Kipyegon is a two-time Olympic gold winner, winner of the 2017 and 2022 world titles, won gold at the Commonwealth Games 2014, and holds three Diamond League titles. Now she etches her name into the record books as being the first time in winning a world record, holding the first and third fastest times in history, running her previous best of 3:50.37 last August.
