Kipyegon leads Kenyan legion into 1500m final
Kenya's Faith Kipyegon, Ethiopia's Diribe Welteji, Netherlands' Sifan Hassan and other athletes compete in the women's 1500m semi-final during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on August 20, 2023.
What you need to know:
- The 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot found it rough to settle a distant ninth in 3:37.40 and failed to qualify for the final.
- The women’s final is scheduled for Tuesday at 10.31pm while the men’s final will be staged on Wednesday at 10.15pm.
Defending champion Faith Kipyegon and compatriot Nelly Chepchirchir are through to the women's 1,500 metres final at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
World indoor bronze medallist Abel Kipsang and world under-20 champion Reynold Kipkorir also eased through to the men’s 1,500m final on the second day for the championships on Sunday.
Kipyegon comfortably put away the second semi-final heat in three minutes and 55.14 seconds, beating Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji to second place in 3:55.18.
Dutch Sifan Hassan, the Olympic 10,000m and 5,000m champion, who had tumbled the previous day in women’s 10,000m, finished third in 3:55.48 to also qualify.
The lanky Chepchirchir controlled the first heat to win in 4:02.14 and sail through to the final in the heat where compatriot Edinah Jebitok finished 10th in 4:05.41 to fall off.
It was a jostle to the finish line as Kipsang, who had displayed strong front-running, settled second in the first semi-final in 3:32.72 behind American Yared Nuguse in 3:32.69.
Kipkorir snatched the last qualifying place in the second semi-final heat by a whisker, finishing sixth in 3:35.53 as Olympic 1,500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway jogged to victory in 3:34.98.
The 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot found it rough to settle a distant ninth in 3:37.40 and failed to qualify for the final.
The women’s final is scheduled for Tuesday at 10.31pm while the men’s final will be staged on Wednesday at 10.15pm.
