Kenyan Faith Kipyegon once again etched her name in the record books by breaking her own world 1500m record with a time of 3:48.68 at the Prefontaine Classic, the ninth stop of the 2025 Wanda Diamond League, in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday.
Barely 80 minutes after her fellow Kenyan and Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet made history at the 50th edition of the Prefontaine Classic, Kipyegon stormed to victory with the first ever sub-3:49 by a woman.
The 31-year-old rebounded strongly from her failed attempt to break four minutes for the mile in Paris over a week ago, where she produced the fastest mile performance in history, albeit in an unofficial and unratifiable exhibition event by Nike.
Today, however, there was no question about the legitimacy of Kipyegon’s achievement as she shaved 0.36 seconds off the record she set in Paris during the Olympic Games last year.
Faith Kipyegon, a three-time Olympic champion in the event, stayed close to the pacemaker through 400m (1:01.61) and 800m (2:03.17), with Olympic silver medalist Jessica Hull of Australia keeping pace.
The Australian remained just a step or two behind Kipyegon as they entered the final lap, but the multiple world record-holder surged ahead on the back straight to pull away. Kipyegon was unstoppable as she powered down the home straight, winning by nearly three seconds.
Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji secured second place in a personal best 3:51.44, followed by Hull (3:52.67) and Great Britain’s Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell (3:54.76) in third and fourth positions respectively.
“First, I want to thank God,” Kipyegon said, when asked about how she felt. “This was really special. As I said in Paris that I was still capable of running under 3:49, and I surprised myself today doing that… It’s something special.”
“This is the time I was expecting when I was in Paris, I say that it’s still possible to run under 3:49, and I’m just so grateful. I thank God, I thank my management, I thank my coach and all of the support system who have been supporting me through this journey, so it feels amazing.”
“I’m grateful to God that I made it today because I talked about it last week, and here I am breaking the world record.” – Faith Kipyegon
“I think the changes were that I was preparing myself for something special, which was to run under four minutes in a mile and I think I pushed myself, getting better and better toward the 1500, so I knew it was possible to still run under 3:49. I’m grateful to God that I made it today because I talked about it last week, and here I am breaking the world record.
“For me, I try to be consistent. I try to follow what my coach is telling me to do, to be better and better every year, so I’m grateful that I’ve started to break the four minutes like in Paris last week and coming here and running the 1500. This is the road to Tokyo and I would say I am in the right direction.
“To be honest, the ladies are pushing me too because they are running quick now and I’m happy that when I broke a world record, they are all running very fast, and that is what I wanted, to motivate the younger generation to come and do even better.
“For them to follow me, it feels so great that they are pushing me as well to break records. These ladies are amazing, I love them. I love competing with them and I normally tell them, let’s push each other and we can still break barriers,” Kipyegon concluded.
