Diamond League Finals 2024: Faith Kipyegon wins women's 1500m, breaks 21-year meeting record

Faith Kipyegon broke the record of Sureyya Ayhan Kop during Diamond League Finals 2024.

Olympic champions Faith Kipyegon and Beatrice Chebet broke meeting records on the track at the Allianz Memorial van Damme, in the second day of action at the Diamond League Finals 2024 in Brussels on Saturday.

In winning the 1500m, Kipyegon secured her fifth Diamond trophy and capped yet another unbeaten season at her specialist discipline. On this occasion, the Kenyan was more focused on winning than on improving her own world record.

She had world road mile champion Diribe Welteji for company on the final lap, but sprinted away down the home straight to win in 3:54.75, taking 0.58 off a meeting record that had stood since 2003. Welteji was second in 3:55.25, finishing comfortably ahead of Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull.

“My goal was to finish my Diamond League season in a good way and I did,” said Kipyegon. “It was a good race, but definitely not an easy one. I started my season very late because of a small problem but now I feel strong.”

Georgia Griffith came in sixth with a personal best of 3:58:40. The 27 year old Australian finished ahead of olympics bronze medallist Georgia Bell who clocked 3:58:95.

Also Read: Diamond League Finals 2024: Which athletes have received wildcard entries?

Elise Vanderelst set a national record for Belgium with a timing of 4:01.26 and finished 11th. The 26 year old broke a 22 year old record of Veerle Dejaeghere who had set the previous record of 4:05.05 in 2002 in Rome.

Beatrice Chebet records seventh fastest time in history to win women’s 5000m title in Diamond League Final 2024

Chebet, who had beaten Kipyegon to the Olympic 5000m title, was a clear winner of the 5000m here in Brussels and produced one of the fastest times in history to smash the meeting record by nine seconds.

She led through 2000m in 5:41.27 and 3000m in 8:31.09. By the time she reached 4000m, she had a three-second lead over Ethiopia’s Medina Eisa. That margin continued to grow in the closing stages and she crossed the line victorious in 14:09.82.

Eisa held on for second, clocking a world U20 record of 14:21.89 to finish ahead of compatriot Fotyen Tesfaye who registered a personal best of 14:28.53. Kenyan athlete, Caroline Nyaga also clocked a personal best of 14:30.14 to finish fifth. Nozomi Tanaka and Karissa Schweizer registered season best timings. Melknat Wudu of Ethiopia was timed at 14:36.65 as the teenager came in seventh while clocking her personal best.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram