Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon made history after becoming the first woman to win three successive Olympic 1,500-metre gold medals with a superb display of middle-distance running.
The 30-year-old 2016 and 2020 champion produced a tactical masterpiece at the Stade de France on Saturday to take gold in a new Olympic record of 3min 51.29sec.
Australia’s Jessica Hull took silver in 3:52.56 while the UK’s Georgia Bell claimed bronze in 3:52.61.
It was another remarkable performance by Kipyegon, the reigning world champion who can now debatably lay claim to being the greatest women’s middle-distance runner in history.
Kipyegon had bided her time early in the race, allowing Gudaf Tsegay to set the pace before moving up onto the Ethiopian’s shoulder just after the first lap.
Tsegay continued to lead at the bell but faded quickly and dropped back as Kipyegon accelerated into first place.
With 200 metres to go, Kipyegon kicked for home and though Hull and Bell pursued they never looked like finding the speed necessary to catch the Kenyan as she scurried across the line to clinch her unprecedented Olympic 1,500-metre treble.
The Kenyan also holds three gold medals for the same distance at the World Athletics championships, the latest coming at Budapest in 2023.
In her home country, Kipyegon is known as the “Queen of 1,500 metres”.
In an interview earlier last year, Kipyegon told Al Jazeera that she has loved running since the age of five and she wants to inspire more young girls to take up the sport.
The diminutive all-time 1,500-metre great grew up in western Kenya’s Rift Valley, which is renowned as a breeding ground for runners.
The world record holder’s voyage began in the ever-changing muddy, dusty and hilly terrain of Ndababit village, 233km (144 miles) west of Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
“I used to run barefoot from my village to the primary school because in Kenya, schools are so far that you always end up running in order to reach them in time,” Kipyegon told Al Jazeera before the Diamond League event in Doha.
“I have loved running since I was a little girl, but I not ever thought I would become an Olympic champion one day,” she said with a chuckle.
Among the long list of milestones in Kipyegon’s career, winning a second Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021 after returning from a maternity break stands out as a evidence to her tenacity and single-mindedness.
Kipyegon credits motherhood and her daughter Alyn with helping her stage a competitive comeback.
“It was not easy as I could barely walk 20 minutes the first time I stepped back on the track,” she said in a social media video in 2022, as she reflected on the difficulties of returning to the track after having given birth.
“But the strength Alyn gives me has helped me overcome all challenges.”
[Aljazeera]
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