Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon will be seeking to retain her 1500m World record when she takes part in the final of the race at the ongoing World Athletics Championship in Budapest Hungary.
Faith Kipyegon starts as an unbackable favorite in the 1500m final. She broke the world record in Florence this year, the mile record in Monaco and the 5000m record in between. She can kick fiercely off a slow pace and cruise easily through a faster race. She is the defending champion.
Kipyegon will team up with World Under 20 champion Nelly Chepchirchir who is the second kenyan in the race.
Sifan Hassan will need to have recovered well from her fall in the last 25 meters of the 10,000m to have any chance of beating Kipyegon or even gaining a medal.
Otherwise, or even if, any challenge is likely to come from the next generation. Ethiopia’s precocious Birke Haylom is just 17 and already has a 3:54.93 to her name, while 21-year-old Diribe Welteji has run 3:55. Going off Diamond League form, the perennial Laura Muir and Australia’s Jess Hull have been prominent, too.
Meanwhile Kenya will be seeking to regain the 3,000m steeple chase men’s title when Abraham Kibiwott, Leonard Bett and Simon Koech will line up in the final tonight. Kenya failed to win the world title over the distance in Oregon and will be out to dethrone reigning champion Morocco’s Sofiane El Bakali.
El Bakali who is also the reigning Olympic champion will however face stiff opposition from the three pronged attack from Kenya and Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma.
Girma rode a late-race surge to a world record of 7:52.11, just over 1.5 seconds off the former mark.
Meanwhile Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Alex Ngeno,Ferguson Rotich and Emmanuel Korir will line up in the men’s 800m qualifying rounds.
