Wayne Lumbasi
Two-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya won her second 1500m title at the World Athletics Championship on Tuesday to hand the country its first gold at the competition. She led the race from start to finish, clocking a winning time of 3 minutes 52.96 seconds.
Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia took silver in 3:54.52, with Britain’s Laura Muir taking bronze in 3:55.28.
“I had pressure because everybody was expecting really special things for me,” said Kipyegon who overtook Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay on the final lap after Tsegay set a blistering early place.
“Everybody was like, ‘We have faith,’ ‘we believe in Faith.’”
Kipyegon is the first woman in history to win four World Championship medals, having won silver in 2015 and 2019 and gold in 2017 and 2022. Kenya’s medal tally at the championships now stands at six, with one gold, three silvers, and two bronzes.
Kipyegon is the fourth-fastest female miler in history, trailing two dubious Chinese and Dibaba, whose personal best is a second faster than Kipyegon’s. No woman has won three Olympic gold medals in an individual track event.
