Kenyan creates history by becoming the first woman to break 3:50 barrier with 3:49.11 at Diamond League
With one of the greatest performances in the history of female middle-distance running, Faith Kipyegon stormed to a world 1500m record of 3:49.11 in Florence on Friday (June 2).
The 29-year-old from Kenya beat Genzebe Dibaba’s eight-year-old mark of 3:50.07 on a cool and still evening in the Luigi Ridolfi Stadium in Italian city. It means Kipyegon is the first woman to break the 3:50 barrier and, after winning two Olympic and two world titles in recent years, she can now lay claim to being called the greatest female 1500m runner in history.
Brooke Feldmeier paced the field through 400m in 62.37 with fellow rabbit Sage Hurta-Klecker passing 800m in 2:04.00 with Kipyegon not far behind. Laura Muir of Britain and Jess Hull of Australia were also hanging on to the swift pace as the rest of the field lagged some distance behind, but Muir and Hull were struggling to stay in contact whereas Kipyegon was cruising in comparison.
Cutting loose in the final 600m and passing the 1000m mark in 2:34.5, Kipyegon only had the Wavelight technology for company and down the back straight she seemed to pull ahead of the lights, which had been set at world record pace. Coming into the home straight it looked like she would break Dibaba’s mark and, sure enough, she charged through the final metres before celebrating. Her final 800m was a scintillating 2:00.6.
Faith Kipyegon (Getty)
Despite the savage early pace, Muir held on to run 3:57.09 in her season’s opener, as Hull ran 3:57.29 and Ciara Mageean of Ireland finished strongly to clock 4:00.95.
“This means a lot to me,” said Kipyegon, who gave birth to her daughter, Alyn, in 2018. “I knew everything was possible. My fans were really looking for this world record and I thank them for praying for me.
“I was not expecting to run this fast tonight. Maybe a world lead, but not a world record.”
“It was great to be part of the world record race,” said Muir, “But it was not the first world record race I was running in, I was in previous ones. I am so happy for Faith. 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.”
Faith Kipyegon is congratulated by fellow athletes (Getty)
Such was the quality of Kipyegon’s run, she would have put former men’s world record-holder and nine-time Olympic…
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