Faith Kipyegon narrowly misses women’s 1,500m world record

The Olympic and world 1,500m champion’s return to the Diamond League did not disappoint. Faith Kipyegon chased Genzebe Dibaba’s world record of 3:50.07 in Monaco on Wednesday, but came up three tenths of a second short, finishing in a Kenyan national record of 3:50.37. 

SECOND FASTEST TIME IN HISTORY ?

Faith Kipyegon ?? powers to 3:50.37 and takes 1500m victory!

She only misses the world record by .30!#MonacoDL pic.twitter.com/9h81gqjL6k

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 10, 2022

The pacers took Kipyegon through 800m in 2:01.64, but dropped off after 900m. Kipyegon ran solo for the final 500m in one minute and 16 seconds, barely missing the record Dibaba ran on the same track in 2015.  

Except for the elusive world record, the 28-year-old back-to-back Olympic champion has done it all. Beside being the national record holder (her previous record was 3:51.07), she is now the second-fastest woman of all time over 1,500m.

Kipyegon’s run wasn’t the only noteworthy performance of the day. The five-time world 100m champion, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, ran a world-leading 10.61 seconds in the women’s 100m. This was the fourth fastest time ever in the 100m and Fraser-Pryce’s third sub-10.7 time in the last seven days.

I don’t have the words yet to describe how I’m feeling. #Godisgood pic.twitter.com/T0E8zOd7Nh

— ShellyAnnFraserPryce (@realshellyannfp) August 10, 2022

In the men’s 3,000m, the pack went out at 3:39 1,500m pace to challenge Daniel Komen’s world record of 7:20.67. Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia led until 100m to go, as Thierry Ndikumwenayo of Burundi passed him on the outside to come home with the victory in a Diamond League record time of 7:25.93. His time was also a world-lead and a Burundian national record. In June, Ndikumwenayo also became the first man from Burundi to run under 13 minutes for 5,000m. 

The up-and-coming American distance runner, Grant Fisher, was third in a personal best and North American record time of 7:28.48. 

The first event on the track was the men’s 1,000m, and all eyes were on the battle between Canada’s world 800m bronze medallist Marco Arop and world champions Jake Wightman and Emmanuel Korir. Arop smashed the 10-year-old Canadian 1,000m record by two seconds in 2:14.35. You can read more about his record-setting race here.