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The two-time world and Olympic champion has promised to run even faster after breaking the eight-year-old world record at Florence Diamond League
Two-time world and Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon has fired a warning to her rivals to expect even faster times from after she broke the 1,500m world record at the Florence Diamond League on Friday.
Kipyegon delivered a thrilling finale to the third leg of the Diamond League meeting to cross the line in 3:49.11 and smash the world record of 3:50.07 set by Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba in Monaco in 2015.
Such was her dominance that world silver medallist Laura Muir finished almost eight seconds behind (3:57.09), while third-placed Jessica Hull (3:57.29) set an Australian and Oceania record.
Kipyegon had promised a ‘beautiful race’ during the pre-race press conference on Thursday, expressing her desire to break the world record, the only achievement left for her over the distance, and she delivered in emphatic style.
"I said yesterday (Thursday) that I wanted to run a beautiful race, run my race, and see what is possible, and this was possible," she said.
"There’s still more to come. I’m still working on running faster than that, faster than 3:49. I’m really thankful today that I managed to run 3:49 and I’m still heading towards beautiful races in the rest of the season."
Kipyegon came agonisingly close to breaking this record at the Herculis meet in Monaco last year when she set her previous best of 3:50.37, and that seemed only to spur her on to make certain of the mark this season.
Her achievement saw her track rivals embrace her with hugs as they celebrated the milestone, a gesture that made her feel special.
"We have really come along as 1,500 women," Kipyegon said. “They are really special. We come along together, cheer one another.”
“This is sport, we have to love each other and celebrate one another at our lowest moments and highest moments, and I really thank the ladies for coming along and running together and celebrating this world record together. We were part of this together."
Kipyegon will now turn her attention to the 5,000m in Paris next week before returning to Kenya to top up her training for another tilt at the record at the Herculis meeting in Monaco in July.
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