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• 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

 

No. 14 seed Jeline Vandromme continued her superb summer form by capturing the US Open girls’ singles title with a 7-6(2), 6-2 defeat of qualifier Lea Nilsson in the final, coming back from 4-2 down in the first set.

Watched by compatriot and former World No. 1 Kim Clijsters, 17-year-old Vandromme became the first Belgian girl to lift a major trophy since An-Sophie Mestach at the 2011 Australian Open, and first to do so at the US Open since Kirsten Flipkens in 2003. She is the fifth Belgian girls’ singles Grand Slam champion in the Open Era following Mestach, Flipkens, Justine Henin (Roland Garros 1997) and Nancy Feber (Wimbledon 1993).

A classically-trained pianist who was a student at the Conservatory of Bruges, Vandromme has said that only one thing links her two passions: “You have to be disciplined in both things, and you have to practice a lot, every day,” she told itftennis.com this week. “I don’t know for sure that piano helps tennis, but I love playing both.”

The discipline has been on show in her nascent tennis career lately, as Vandromme is now on a 23-match winning streak at all levels. She spent July and August playing the ITF World Tour, collecting three consecutive titles — the Roehampton ITF W35 as a qualifier, then back-to-back ITF W15s in Monastir — and cutting her PIF WTA Ranking from No. 754 to No. 495 in four weeks.

She’s also now won 33 sets in a row. Vandromme last dropped a set in the Roehampton final, in which she defeated Shi Han 7-6(4), 5-7, 7-5. Following that, she won both Monastir events and the US Open title without the loss of a set. Her run in Flushing Meadows included a 6-3, 6-2 third-round defeat of Australian Open girls’ finalist Kristina Penickova and a 6-3, 6-2 semifinal win over Roland Garros girls’ finalist Hannah Klugman.

Vandromme conceded only 22 games in five matches to reach the final, but faced her stiffest opposition with the title on the line. Nilsson was the first player to stretch her as far as a tiebreak since the Roehampton final — appropriately, given the 17-year-old Swede’s battling run this week.

After losing a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 heartbreaker to Nadia Lagaev in the third round of the Repentigny junior event in Canada the previous week, Nilsson caught a 7 a.m. flight to New York the following morning — and had to play her first qualifying match that afternoon, which she eked out 5-7, 6-1, [10-7] over Ireland O’Brien. 

But she still had the energy to dish out two of the main draw’s biggest upsets, taking out No. 1 seed Julieta Pareja 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the third round and defending champion Mika Stojsavljevic 0-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals. Nilsson was the first Swedish girl in a junior Slam final since Sofia Arvidsson at the 2001 Australian Open, and was bidding to become the first qualifier ever to win the US Open junior title. She has a WTA ranking of No. 992.

A nip-and-tuck first set saw Vandromme struggle to find the balance between power and safety as Nilsson delivered solid defense with a few excellent net forays mixed in. Vandromme fired five winners — nearly half her first-set total of 11 — in the first game alone but was nonetheless broken, and reined in her aggression to reel Nilsson in from 4-2 down.

Once Vandromme had the tiebreak under her belt, though, she loosened up and showed what she was capable of in full flow. Boasting a major weapon in her forehand, Vandromme danced around it with beautiful footwork to unload repeatedly and raise her tally of winners to 25. 

“I think I played a very good opponent, to start with,” Vandromme told press afterwards. “Lea played an incredible week and today also. I had a bit of nerves before the match, I would say, but I think I handled them good. I tried to play my level, my game, and it worked out really great.

“I just tried to not focus on the fact that I’m 2-4 or 0-2 down. I just tried to focus on every point, every shot that I make, on my plan, and my tasks on court. Then I kind of forgot the score. I mean, I’m just trying to play every point and doing what I have to do. Then I don’t have extra pressure or I don’t feel the negative emotions coming up when I’m down.

“Of course you start to feel the legs a bit when you go far into the tournament, like in the final now. But when the adrenaline takes over, then all I just felt was energy. Yeah, the will to win every point was so big that I don’t feel any fatigue or pain.”

Vandromme didn’t have much time to celebrate her singles win: it was into the shower, a change of clothes and a quick bite to eat on the exercise bike before she was back out on court for the girls’ doubles final alongside Lithuania’s Laima Vladson as the No. 4 seeds.

However, Vandromme was denied the double crown by Czech sisters Alena and Jana Kovackova, the No. 3 seeds, who raced to a 6-2, 6-2 victory. It’s a second major girls’ doubles title for 17-year-old Alena, who was the 2023 Wimbledon champion alongside Laura Samson, and a first for her younger sister Jana.

The 15-year-old becomes the first 2010-born player to claim a junior Grand Slam title; she’s already the highest-ranked 2010-born player at No. 642, having compiled a 24-7 pro record including two ITF titles this year. Alena, meanwhile, is ranked at No. 640, and qualified for her first WTA main draw in July in Prague.

The Kovackovas are the second sister act to lift a Grand Slam girls’ doubles trophy this year after American twins Annika and Kristina Penickova were victorious at the Australian Open — defeating the Kovackovas in the final — and the first to do so in US Open history.

With the three-match series locked at 1-1, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will lock horns in the third and final T20I at the Harare Sports Club on Sunday.

Zimbabwe had stunned the visitor in the second T20I on Saturday to set up the series decider. The Sikandar Raza-led side bundled out Sri Lanka for 80, its second-lowest T20I total, and chased the target down inside 15 overs with five wickets in hand. It was Zimbabwe’s only second win against the Sri Lankans in eight T20I matches.

Sri Lanka had clinched the series opener by four wickets after winning the ODI series 2-0.

ZIM vs SL 3rd T20I – Match Details

When will the third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka take place?

The third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will be played on Sunday, September 7.

Where will the third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka be held?

The third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will take place at the Harare Sports Club.

At what time will the third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka start?

The third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will begin at 5 PM IST. The toss is schedule for 4:30 PM IST.

Where to watch the live telecast of the third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in India?

The third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will not be televised live on any TV channel in India.

Where to watch the live stream of the third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in India?

The third T20I between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka will be streamed live on the FanCode app and website in India.

THE SQUADS

Zimbabwe: Sikandar Raza (c), Brian Bennett, Ryan Burl, Brad Evans, Trevor Gwandu, Clive Madande, Tinotenda Maposa, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Wellington Masakadza, Tony Munyonga, Tashinga Musekiwa, Blessing Muzarabani, Dion Myers, Richard Ngarava, Brendan Taylor, Sean Williams.

Sri Lanka: Charith Asalanka (c), Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Kusal Perera, Nuwanidu Fernando, Kamindu Mendis, Kamil Mishara, Vishen Halambage, Dasun Shanaka, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushan Hemantha, Dushmantha Chameera, Binura Fernando, Nuwan Thushara, Matheesha Pathirana.

Published on Sep 07, 2025