TOKYO2025: Kipyegon, Chebet back on track as chase for 5000m title begins
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Reading Time: 2min | Thu. 18.09.25. | 05:18
With expectations to qualify high, the Kenyan quartet is aiming for a sweep of the medals
Already champions in the 1500m, with a record fourth title, and 10,000m, world record holders Faith Kipyegon and Beatrice Chebet are back on track on Thursday, 18 September, this time in the 5000m heats.
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Baring calamity, the duo is expected to cruise through to the final, with Chebet first on track in heat 1, joined byJapan-based Margaret Akidor. Kipyegon headlines heat 2 alongside Agnes Jebet Ngetich.
The battle, however, is not in the heats where the first eight to cross the line will qualify, but in Saturday, 20 September final, where the four fastest women in history are likely to clash, as Kipyegon and Chebet go head to head for the first time since the Paris Olympics.
Chebet, the double Olympic champion, became the first woman to cover 5000m within 14 minutes with her world record of 13:58.06 at the Prefontaine Classic in July. The race, which doubled as the Kenyan Trials, also featured Ngetich and Gudaf Tsegay, who clocked 14:01.29 and 14:04.41 respectively.
The 2022 silver medalist and a bronze medal winner a year after that, Chebet will be keen to complete her set of World Championship medals when she takes on Kipyegon, her idol and the defending champion.
Meanwhile, Kipyegon has not raced in the 5000m since the Paris Olympics, where she took silver behind Chebet.
Few weeks ago in Silesia, she threatened the long-standing world 3000m record with 8:07.04, the second-fastest time in history, bumping Chebet’s 8:11.56 down to third on the world all-time list.
Chebet and Kipyegon will have reinforcement from Ngetich and Japan-based Akidor. Ngetich, the third-fastest woman in history at 5000m and world record-holder for 10km, has grown in confidence on the track this year with wins in Brussels and Miramar.
The Kenyan quartet is aiming for a sweep of the medals, against formidable opposition from Ethiopians. Tsegay, who won the world 5000m title in 2022 and the world 10,000m crown in 2023, will be keen to make amends after coming away from the Paris Olympics without a medal and settling for bronze in the 10000m.
Tsegay, who competes in heat 2, is joined on the Ethiopian team by world U20 record-holder Birke Haylom, and two-time world U20 champion Medina Eisa and Fantaye Belayneh
The 5000m won't solely be an East African battle, though. The 10,000m silver medalist Nadia Battocletti reduced her own Italian record to 14:23.15 earlier this year. She has also set national records at 3000m (8:26.27) and 5km (14:32).
Additional reporting by World Athletics
