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TOKYO2025: Kipyegon bidding to equal El Guerrouj’s 1500m legacy
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Reading Time: 3min | Mon. 15.09.25. | 19:36
At 31, Kipyegon has already cemented her place among the sport’s all-time greats
Triple Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon is the undisputed favourite for the women’s 1500m crown at the Tokyo World Championships, despite having raced sparingly this season.
Kipyegon had contested just three official races before heading to Tokyo.
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Despite that, each outing was one for the books.
Her campaign began in late April at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen, where she clocked 2:29.21 over 1000m, narrowly missing the world record but registering the third-fastest time in history.
In June, she produced a sensational 4:06.42 mile in an exhibition event, the fastest performance ever recorded over the distance.
The climax came in Eugene, where she lowered her own 1500m world record to 3:48.68.
She nearly added another milestone in August when she attacked the 3000m world record in Silesia.
Though she fell short by less than a second, her 8:06.9 performance made her the only woman to finish within five seconds of Wang Junxia’s long-standing mark of 8:06.11 from 1993.
At 31, Kipyegon has already cemented her place among the sport’s all-time greats.
She owns three Olympic 1500m titles and three World Championship crowns, a record for women in the event, and has not lost a race over the distance in four years.
Victory in Tokyo would elevate her to match Moroccan legend Hicham El Guerrouj as the only athletes with four 1500m world titles.
El Guerrouj’s dominance defined the 1500m in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
His 3:26.00 world record, set in 1998, still stands. He collected five world titles in total: two outdoor and three indoor, and famously achieved a historic double at the 2004 Athens Olympics, winning both the 1500m and 5000m.
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Beyond records and medals, El Guerrouj’s career was marked by tactical brilliance and consistency, winning 51 of 54 races between 1996 and 2000.
For Kipyegon, equaling his tally would underscore her as the definitive queen of the modern era.
Who can stop her?
One potential rival, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, the second-fastest woman of all time at 3:50.62, will not contest the 1500m in Tokyo, choosing instead to focus on the 5000m and 10,000m.
Similarly, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet, ranked fifth in the world this season, has opted for the longer distances.
Both are expected to reunite with Kipyegon in the 5000m final, where the Kenyan is the defending champion.
Australia’s Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull will carry hopes of a challenge, especially after pushing Nelly Chepchirchir to a photo finish in Zurich.
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Chepchirchir herself has been in scintillating form, collecting Diamond League wins in Doha, Rabat, Paris, and Monaco, and will look to translate that momentum onto the world stage.
From the U.S, national champion Nikki Hiltz arrives with confidence after a season’s best 3:55.94 in Brussels, while Britain’s Laura Muir, a perennial finalist, returns for another shot at a global medal.
Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell, the sixth-fastest in 2025, has shifted her focus to the 800m.
