Faith Kipyegon obliterates 1500m World Record

• Kipyegon ran 3:49.11 to run a new WR
• She came close in Monaco last year
• Genzebe Dibaba held the previous record of 3:50.07

Double World and Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon obliterated the 1500m World Record at the Florence leg of the Diamond League on Friday, running a new mark of 3:49.11.

Kipyegon shattered the previous mark of 3:50.07 held by Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba and set in 2015, and became the first female athlete ever to run the 1500m race in under 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

“I said yesterday that I wanted to run a beautiful race, run my race, and see what is possible, and this was possible,” Kipyegon said after the race.

“There’s still more to come. I’m still working on running faster than that, faster than 3:49. I’m really thankful today that I managed to run 3:49 and I’m still heading towards beautiful races in the rest of the season.”

Kipyegon came agonisingly close to breaking this record at the Herculis meet in Monaco last year when she set her previous best of 3:50.37, and that seemed only to spur her on to make certain of the mark this season.

World silver medallist Laura Muir finished almost eight seconds behind (3:57.09), while third-placed Jessica Hull (3:57.29) set an Australian and Oceania record.

-More to follow