Budapest23: Eyes on Faith Kipyegon as Kenya hopes to mine first gold medal

It is in no doubt that nearly everyone believes that Kenya will bag its first gold medal in the ongoing 2023 World Athletics Championships on Tuesday evening as the trailblazing Faith Kipyegon will be racing in the 1500m final.

Kenya has so far won a silver courtesy of Daniel Simiu who finished second in the 10000m final held last Sunday behind Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei who, successfully defended his title for the third time.

Going by Kipyegon’s incredible form in the season which has seen her break three world records including the 1500m, one, Kenyans have invested sky-high hopes of securing the first gold medal in Budapest.

You have to go back to 10 June 2021 to find the last time Kipyegon was beaten in a 1500m race – on that occasion by Sifan Hassan in the Florence Diamond League meeting.

As if becoming the first woman to break the 3:50 barrier for 1500m, with 3:49.11 in Florence on 2 June, wasn’t enough, Kipyegon slashed more than four seconds off Hassan’s mile record with a stunning 4:07.64 in Monaco on 21 July – matching New Zealander Jack Lovelock’s men’s world record time at Princeton in 1933. Then, of course, there was also the 14:05.20 world record at 5000m in Paris in between.

Kipyegon will have compatriot Nelly Chepchirchir for company in the final that promises to be thrilling given the caliber of the rest of finalists.

Besides having Hassan who will be hoping to console herself with a medal after faltering in the 10000m final, Kipyegon will be challenged by Olympic silver in Tokyo and world bronze medalist Laura Muir and Commonwealth silver medallist Ciara Mageean of Ireland.

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Former junior champion Diribe Welteji is also in the mix so is world U20 champion Birke Haylom who broke Kipyegon’s world U20 record in Poland.

The race is expected to gun off at 10:30pm East African Time.

There are also hopes for a medal in the men’s 3000m Steeplechase final where the trio of Abraham Kibiwott, Leonard Bett and Simon Koech will look to reclaim the title Kenya lost last year in Oregon.

The three will have to be extremely at their best if they are to medal as the field has both the record holder Lamecha Girma and Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali.

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Bakkali is the defending world champion and the reigning Olympic champion: the dominant athlete in the event in recent times. But he came up short in his assault on Saif Saaeed Shaheen’s then world record in Rabat earlier this year.

No such problems for Ethiopia’s Girma at the Paris Diamond League in early June. Girma rode a late-race surge to a world record of 7:52.11, just over 1.5 seconds off the former mark. The race is scheduled to start at 10:40 pm East African Time.

Before the two finals, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Alex Kipngetich, Ferguson Rotich and Emmanuel Korir will race in the 800m preliminaries set to start at 8:20pm East African Time.

Additional Reporting by World Athletics