Kipyegon runs amazing world record at 5,000 meters

Olympic champion Sifan Hassan has a competitor in the 5,000 meters. And not just any one. At the Diamond League meeting in Paris, Faith Kipyegon once again showed her great class.

A week after Kipyegon broke the world record in the 1,500 meters in Florence, she broke the world record in the 5,000 meters on Friday. With 14.05.20 she was 1.42 faster than Letesenbet Gidey in October 2020 in Valencia.

The 29-year-old Kenyan has dominated the 1,500 meters since her Olympic title in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Only once has the world record holder been beaten: in 2019, Hassan was too fast for her at the world championships in Doha.

This season, Kipyegon has her eyes set on the 5,000m, a distance she hadn’t run competitively in eight years. Her return tonight was one for the history books.

In Florence, the 1,500 meters was fully aligned with Kipyegon’s record attempt, but now she had to deal with the keeper herself, Gidey. Despite the killer pace of occasional hare Beatrice Chepkoech (world record holder in the 3,000 meter steeplechase), things seemed to be going well for the Ethiopian for a long time.

Gidey resolutely took the lead after 3,000 metres, but Kipyegon followed leisurely in her wake. Two laps before the end, the Kenyan took over the lead and with a magisterial last lap (60.08) she declassified Gidey and also deprived her of the world top time.

Hassan himself shone in Paris by his absence, just like Femke Bol. As a result, Lieke Klaver was the Dutch eye-catcher in an exceptionally strong field of 400 meters. Klaver ran excellently – with 50.32 she remained 0.14 above her personal best – but only finished fifth.

That was due to the strong competition, with reigning Olympic and world champion in the 400 meters hurdles, Sydney McLaughlin, as the eye-catcher. The American participated in a major competition for the first time in a long time and took off like a rocket.

However, on the final straight McLaughlin collapsed and was passed by the Games and World Championship runner-up, Cuba’s Marileidy Paulino.

McLaughlin finished second in 49.71, but well behind Paulino (49.12). The Bahraini Salwa Eid Naser, world champion in 2019 and just back after a two-year doping suspension, came third in 49.95.

On a great athletics evening in Paris, Lamecha Girma also set a world record. In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, the Ethiopian, who won silver at the 2021 Games and the 2022 World Cup, fell more than one and a half seconds below the nine-year-old record of Kenyan-born Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen with 7.52.11.

And at the beginning of the evening, the Norwegian prodigy Jakob Ingebrigtsen also ran a sensational world record in the obsolete two English miles (3.219 kilometers).

Although that distance is rarely run, many of the very biggest names in athletics have attempted a record attempt. Eliud Kipchoge, Hicham el Guerrouj, Paul Koech, Kenenisa Bekele and Mo Farah did not come close to the eight-minute mark.

Haile Gebreselassie did that in 1997 at the FBK Games in Hengelo, but stranded at 8:01.08. Only one athlete has ever dipped below the magical limit before.

A few weeks after Gebreselassie, the Kenyan Daniel Komen ran the double English mile in Hechtel, Belgium, in 7:58.61.

With 7.54.10, the Norwegian took no less than four and a half seconds off that.

Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs was not involved in the 100 meters with 10.21 (seventh). Noah Lyles, world champion in the 200 meters, triumphed in 9.97.

Other notable achievements came from Keely Hodgkinson in the 800m and hurdler Grant Holloway.

Hodgkinson, who won silver at the 2021 Games and the World Cup a year later, thundered to 1.55.77 in the 800 meters. In her first outdoor race of the season, that was a British record.

Grant Holloway ran the 110-meter hurdles for the first time this season under thirteen seconds: 12.98.

For Jessica Schilder, the only other Dutch participant in Paris, the Diamond League meeting ended in disappointment. The 24-year-old shot putter from Volendam did not get further than 17.93 meters and 17.95 meters after an invalid attempt. This kept her far from her personal best of 20.24 meters.

Two weeks ago in Rabat, European champion Schilder came second in her first outdoor competition with 18.85 metres. Even then she showed only two valid attempts.

The Portuguese Auriol Dongmo, who won silver behind Schilder at the European Championship, triumphed in Paris. With 19.72 meters she referred world champion Chase Ealey (19.43 meters) to second place.