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The two-time world and Olympic is delighted to have cemented her legacy but feels she is still capable of breaking her own record
World 1,500m record holder Faith Kipyegon still has the hunger to even lower her world record further after achieving the feat at the Florence Diamond League.
Kipyegon clocked 3:49.11 to break Genzebe Dibaba’s eight-year record in Florence last week and while she is delighted to have cemented her legacy by completing the set of Olympics, world champion as well as world record holder, she feels she is still capable of breaking her own record.
“I didn’t sleep that night. I went back to the hotel around midnight because I had engagements with the doping control. I did not celebrate but when I go back home, I know we are going to celebrate with my family, my team back in Kaptagat and the whole team,” Kipyegon said during the pre-race media conference ahead of Friday’s Paris Diamond League where she will run the 5,000m.
“If I stay healthy, I hope to break under 3.49 in future. I don’t know if it will happen sooner. Everything is possible as Eliud (Kipchoge) always says so this still means a lot to me. It was motivating me to leave a legacy, being Olympic and world champion and now I am the record holder it has filled my pockets and I have motivated many young girls and women around the world.”
Kipyegon will come up against a strong field that includes three world record holders as she features in the 5,00m for just the third time in her career, using the race to test her speed and build endurance.
One week on from her record-breaking 1500m feat she will move up to a distance she has not contested for eight years, and will take on three other world record-holders: Letesenbet Gidey, Beatrice Chepkoech and Ejgayehu Taye.
World 10,000m champion Gidey hasn’t raced since the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst in February where she was leading up until the final 20 metres before her legs gave way. As the world record-holder over 5,000m and 10,000m, the 25-year-old Ethiopian will be keen to put in a strong showing to show that her Bathurst performance was but a blip.
Taye holds the world record for the road 5km at 14:19, but is also an accomplished performer on the track. She set an African 3000m record of 8:19.52 in 2021, and last year she held the world-leading 5000m mark of 14:12.98.
Chepkoech is the fourth world record-holder in the field. The Kenyan holds the steeplechase world record and is the 2019 world champion at that distance, but she is internationally competitive in flat events too, having earned Commonwealth 1500m silver in 2018. She has a 5000m PB of 14:39.33 and previously held the world road 5km record.
The line-up also includes world indoor 3000m champion Lemlem Hailu of Ethiopia, Olympic 1500m silver medallist Laura Muir of Great Britain, 2019 world silver medallist Margaret Kipkemboi, world cross-country bronze medallist Agnes Ngetich, North American 10,000m record-holder Alicia Monson, and up-and-coming Kenyan Grace Loibach Nawowuna, who recently clocked 29:47.42 for 10,000m.
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