- Faith Kipyegon has the chance to equal Hicham El Guerrouj’s record gold-medal haul
- Her compatriot Nelly Chepchirchir will be buoyed by Diamond League Final win
- Diribe Welteji, Jessica Hull and Nikki Hiltz are among the medal contenders
Despite having contested only three official races this year, Faith Kipyegon starts as the big gold-medal favourite at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, especially after one of those races featured a world record.
The Kenyan star opened her campaign in late April at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen, just missing the world 1000m record with 2:29.21 – the third-fastest time in history behind her own PB and the world record.
Two months later, she produced the fastest mile performance in history (4:06.42) in an unofficial exhibition event. Shortly after that she competed at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene and improved her own world 1500m record, which now stands at 3:48.68.
She also attempted the world 3000m record at the Diamond League meeting in Silesia in August, but missed it by less than a second. Nevertheless, she was satisfied with the result as she became the only woman to come within five seconds of the long-standing world record of 8:06.11 set by Wang Junxia in 1993.
“It is all about Tokyo now,” she said after the race.
The 31-year-old has won three Olympic and three world 1500m titles – more than any other woman in the history of the event – and remains unbeaten over the distance for four years. If she continues this streak at the World Championships, she will equal the gold medal haul achieved by Hicham El Guerrouj – the only runner with four world 1500m titles.
Her closest pursuer Gudaf Tsegay, who ran 3:50.62 this year, is entered in the 5000m and 10,000m at WCH Tokyo 25. Since the longest track event and the 1500m heats both fall on the first competition day, Saturday 13 September, the Ethiopian has decided to skip the shorter distance. The 1500m semifinals are on 14 September, and the final is two days after that.
Kipyegon’s compatriot Beatrice Chebet – fifth on this season’s 1500m top list – made the same decision as Tsegay. However, if everything goes to plan, the trio will reunite in the final of the 5000m – an event in which Kipyegon is also the defending champion.
In Tsegay’s absence, Ethiopia’s leading contender for a 1500m medal is Diribe Welteji, the world silver medallist two years ago. When Kipyegon set her world record in Eugene, the 22-year-old finished second in a personal best of 3:51.44, which places her eighth on the all-time list.
Three spots ahead of her on that world all-time list stands Australia’s Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull, who narrowly lost this year’s Diamond League Final in Zurich when Kenya’s Nelly Chepchirchir beat her in a photo finish. Chepchirchir, who also won at the Diamond League meetings in Doha, Rabat, Paris and Monaco, is also among the contenders in Tokyo.
The US team will be led by national champion Nikki Hiltz, who won at the penultimate Diamond League meeting in Brussels in a season’s best of 3:55.94.
Laura Muir has placed in the top six at the last five World Championships. She will be part of the British team again, while her compatriot Georgia Hunter Bell – who is the sixth-fastest woman in the 1500m this year and the Olympic bronze medallist – has decided to focus on the 800m.
Lucijan Zalokar for World Athletics