Kenyan Kipyegon sets her second world record in a week

Faith Kipyegon has broken this Friday in Paris the universal record of 5,000 meters and has left it in 14:05.20

Seven days earlier she had made history by becoming the first woman ‘under 3:50’ in the 1,500 meters (3:49.11)

Kenyan Faith Kipyegon added her second world record in the last seven daysafter setting this Friday a new universal record of the 5,000 meters by winning the meeting in Paris, the fourth appointment of the Diamond League, with a time of 14:05.20 minutes.

If last Friday Kipyegon became the first woman in history to drop below the 3:50 minute barrier in the 1,500 meters, after running in 3:49.11 in Florence, This Friday in Paris the Kenyan lowered the 5,000 world record by 1.42 seconds owned by the Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey since October 2020 with a time of 14:06.62.

And it is that Nothing seems impossible for Faith Kipyegon, who at 29 years old, seems willing not only to dominate the 1,500 meters with an iron fist, a distance in which the Kenyan is the current Olympic and world champion, but to expand her territory to 5,000 meters. As she made clear this Friday at the Charlety stadium in the French capital, where she became the first athlete to drop below 14:06 minutes in the five kilometers.

A world record that was accompanied by a victory over the Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey, the until now universal record holder, who could not stand the devilish pace that Kipyegon imposed in the last 400 meters. Last lap in which the universal top seemed to escape the couple made up of the Kenyan Kipyegon and the Abyssinian, already a former universal recordwoman, who had an exceptional “hare” in Paris, the Kenyan Beatrice Chepkoech, universal record holder of the 3,000 obstacles.

If under the baton of Chepkoech, who completed the first 3,000 meters with a time of 8:31.91, below the required mark, the race moved at a new world record pace, when the last 400 meters reached the green lights that help athletes to visualize the universal record seemed to move away definitively. But Faith Kipyegon was not willing to give up and with a spectacular final change of pace began to hunt down the green luminaries. until overtaking them to prevail with a time of 14:05.20 minutes, almost a second and a half less than the previous universal record.

“No, I haven’t thought about the record, I don’t know how I got it. I just focused on the green light and tried to be relaxed and enjoy the race. I just ran and wanted to see what would happen, so when I saw that it was the world record I was so surprised. I just wanted to do my best and improve my personal best,” Kipyegon said.

In fact, The Kenyan hadn’t run a 5,000 for eight years, since far away 2015 when he signed a time of 14:31.95 minutes, almost half a minute more than the new world record that Faith Kipyegon established this Friday in Paris. Perhaps for this reason, as she herself explained, for almost 4,000 meters she limited herself to following in the wake of the Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey.

“I just ran after Gidey, she is an incredible woman,” the Kenyan athlete insisted over and over again., who does not yet know what his next goal will be in a campaign in which Faith Kypyegon is setting the world record per week. “I don’t know what’s next, I still have to discuss it with my coach. I’m so happy, right now I’m so excited that I don’t know what to say. If my body is healthy, anything is possible,” concluded the Kenyan athlete.