Faith Kipyegon and Beatrice Chebet broke meeting records as they reigned supreme in their races during the Diamond League final in Brussels, Belgium.
The two, who are also Olympic champions, stood out in actions that were conducted on Saturday, September 14, 2024, at night. Kipyegon won the 1500m race to secure her fifth Diamond trophy and capped yet another unbeaten season at her specialist discipline.
Among Kipyegon’s top goals was a trophy and improvement of her own world record as she faced world road mile champion Diribe Welteji for company on the final lap in Brussels.
The Kenyan saw off her Ethiopian rival 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. 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,” Kipyegon told World Athletics.
In the 5000m, Chebet produced one of the fastest times in history to smash the meeting record by nine seconds.
The double Olympic gold medallist 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.
Finally, Emmanuel Wanyonyi became the 800m champion after coming from behind to outshine his rivals by a small margin. Marco Arop, Wanyonyi’s top rival, covered the first lap in 49.28 as hopes were that the record could be broken.
But the Canadian started to fade with 150 metres to go, though, as Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati started to challenge for the lead; little did they know that was timing a super finish.
The Olympic champion overtook the two just before the line to win in 1:42.70 as Sedjati came in second in 1:42.86 with Arop finishing third in 1:43.25.
