Unbwogable Faith Kipyegon retains 1,500m Diamond League Trophy
Kenya's Faith Kipyegon reacts after winning the women's 5000m final during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on August 26, 2023.
Jewel Samad | AFP
What you need to know:
- Kipyegon sealed her third consecutive win at the Prefontaine Classic when she won in a meeting record time of three minutes and 50.72 seconds at Hayward Field, Oregon, Eugene, United States of America on Saturday.
- This was the sixth time she was winning the 1,500m race at the Prefontaine Classic.
Multi-track world record holder, Kenya's Faith Kipyegon on Saturday retained her 1,500 metres Diamond League Trophy.
Kipyegon sealed her third consecutive win at the Prefontaine Classic when she won in a meeting record time of three minutes and 50.72 seconds at Hayward Field, Oregon, Eugene, United States of America on Saturday.
Kipyegon, who won the 1,500m race at Florence Diamond in 3:49.11 on June 2, followed by the 5,000m and One Mile world records in Paris in 14.05.20 and Monaco in 4:07 64 beat Ethiopian Derive Welteji to second place in personal best 3:53.93.
It was a replica of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest where Kipyegon sealed her third world title in 1,500m as the Ethiopian claimed silver.
Laura Muir from Great Britain finished third in her season's best of 3:55.16 at the Prefontaine Classic.
This was the sixth time Kipyegon was winning the 1500m race at the Prefontaine Classic.
It was fourth Diamond League Trophy for Kipyegon, the triple world and double Olympic 1,500m champion, who holds world records in 1,500m, 5,000m and One Mile.
Kipyegon, who is also the 5,000m champion, now turns her focus to the World Athletics Road Running Championships scheduled for September 30 to October 1 in Latvia.
Kipyegon also won the Diamond League Trophy in 2017, 2021 and 2022.
Meanwhile, the women's 3,000m steeplechase was a replica of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Once again, world champion Kenyan born Wilfred Yavi from Bahrain shot to the lead with two laps to go stretching the pack before holding off Kenya's World record holder Beatrice Chepkoech after the last water jump to win in the second ever fastest time of eight minutes and 50.56 seconds.
Yavi gets to lift her maiden Diamond League Trophy with a personal best time and the fastest time on American soil.
Just like Budapest, Chepkoech, the 2019 world champion and Diamond League Trophy winner, settled second in season's best 8:51.67 as world bronze medallist Faith Cherotich came third, improving personal best to 8:59.65, beating the 9:00.69 set in Budapest.
