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The 29-year-old Kenyan was surprised to see her great track rival defy the odds to win in the English capital and she cannot wait to make the switch
Two-time world and Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon has explained how seeing Sifan Hassan win the London Marathon increased her desire to switch from track to the road.
Hassan overcame early problems to storm to victory in London last month, winning on her marathon debut, after clocking 2:18:33 ahead of Ethiopian Hassan Alemu Megertu and reigning Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya.
The Ethiopian-born Dutch athlete triumphed despite falling off the pace and clutching her hip around the 24km mark and Kipyegon, who has had incredible battles with Hassan over the 1,500m, says the win kind of put pressure on her to also switch to marathon.
“Sifan Hassan did the best in London,” Kipyegon said in Qatar, ahead of Friday’s Doha Diamond League.
“I was not expecting that but I was really in pressure like I also want to do that. I also want to run marathon in future and seeing Sifan at the London Marathon winning on her debut gave me a really good motivation.”
Kipyegon and Hassan have been great rivals on the track, beating each other in the 1,500m race, where the Kenyan first claimed a win over the Dutchwoman at the 2015 World Championships where she claimed silver ahead of her rival, who managed bronze.
Hassan would beat Kipyegon to gold at the 2019 Worlds in Doha, the Kenyan having just returned from maternity break to claim silver, but the 29-year-old had her revenge three years later when she overtook Hassan in the last 200m to secure her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.
With Hassan moving to the marathon, a battle on the track is not expected at this year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary but another rivalry could be in the offing in near future, when Kipyegon finally makes her desired switch to marathon.
For now, the mother of one is looking forward kickstarting her campaign at the season-opening Doha Diamond League meeting on Friday.
Kipyegon ran the second-fastest women’s 1,500m of all time in Monaco last year, clocking 3:50.37, for a performance just three tenths of a second off Genzebe Dibaba’s world record.
That came a few weeks after winning her second world gold in Oregon and she went on to complete a hat-trick of Diamond League title wins in Zurich last September.
Kipyegon, who will be the headline act at the meeting, is up against Ethiopians Welteji Diribe (3:56.91) and Hailu and Freweyni (3:56.28), the only women with a sub-3:57, with Winny Chebet, whose personal best is 3:58:20, the other Kenyan in the race.
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