In yet another glorious moment in a record and medal-laden year on the track, Kenya’s middle-distance running “queen” Faith Kipyegon completed a hat-trick of world 1,500-metre gold medals at the World Athletics Championship in Budapest this week.
The double Olympic champion has not lost over the distance for two years.
Although Kipyegon launched her season with a slightly less comfortable win at the Doha Diamond League in May, she has since vanquished her competitors and past records in an astonishing season.
In May, she crossed the finish line in the women’s 1,500-metre race in Doha in front of a large contingent of Kenyan fans bowing to her from the stands.
The 29-year-old finished the race with a time of 3:58.57, nearly nine seconds behind Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba’s world record, in one of her poorest finishes.
The wait for the world record didn’t last too long.
A month later, Kipyegon not only broke the record but also smashed the three-minute, 50-second barrier at the meet in Florence. And as soon as she crossed the line this time around, Kipyegon fell on the track and slammed her hands in an outpouring of disbelief and ecstasy.
“She is one 100 percent the best ever,” shouted the television commentator while the Kenyan walked over to her coach with tears running down her face.
“A world record for the greatest 1,500-metre runner of all time,” the commentator exclaimed. Few could find fault with the statement as Kipyegon has three of the 10 best finishes in the women’s race.
However, what she achieved the following week in Paris elevated her as simply one of the greatest runners of all time – in any category.
Running a 5,000-metre race after a gap of eight years, Kipyegon stunned the world as she broke the world record at that distance.
Kipyegon enjoyed a comfortable lead as she approached the finish line. Once over, she looked up to check the time and held her head in her hands in disbelief before collapsing into a heap in the arms of Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey, whose record she had just broken in 14 minutes and 5.20 seconds.
It was a race that she said she was running to simply “enjoy herself” without much prior planning.
On Saturday evening she will race in the 5,000-metre final in Budapest, hoping to add a World Championship double gold to her glittering collection.
In an interview earlier this year, Kipyegon told Al Jazeera that she has loved running since the age of five and she wants to inspire more young girls to take up the sport.
