After a dramatic victory at the sixth Diamond League meeting of the season in Monaco on Friday night, Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon  has now turned her focus to the Tokyo olympics.

Kipyegon, who is also the 2017 World Champion, trailed the reigning World 1,500m champion Sifan Hassan for the Netherlands for the better part of the race.

As they entered the final straight Kipyegon kicked hard, dashing past her rival and sprinting down the straight to win in 3:51.07, a Kenyan record and the fourth fastest time in history. Hassan finished second in 3:53.60.

The feat saw Kipyegon, the winner of the Kenyan trials for the Tokyo Olympics,  beat her previous time of 3:53.91 set at Florence Golden Gala in Italy on June 10.

It was also a swift revenge against Hassan, who beat her to second place at Florence.Kipyegon’s time is a World Lead.

“I knew Sifan was going for a fast race and my goal was to run a fast race here and I thank God that was,” she said. 

“I am really looking forward to Tokyo and I know it will be a very hard competition but I hope to go there and defend my title,”said Kipyegon who will be teaming up with Winny Jebet and Ednah Jebitok in the 1,500m in Tokyo.

Kipyegon gave birth to her first child in 2018 and returned in 2019 to finish second to Hassan at the World Championships in Doha, but has now found an even richer vein of form than that which carried her to the Olympic title in 2016 and the world title in 2017. 

“I came back after giving birth and I feel like a role model for the young mothers out there and the young athletes,” she said.

“I hope to show them that when you go for maternity leave, this does not mean the end of your career. You can come back strong and win races.”

Now with a proper pre-season preparation for Olympics, Chepng’etich has thrown down the gauntlet ahead of the duo’s clash at the Tokyo Games.

In her best form prior to her maternity leave, the 26-year-old only suffered three defeats in 14 finals between 2016 and 2017. 

The diminutive Kenyan was unquestionably the world’s leading woman over 1,500m during those two seasons, a tag she is keen to reclaim in 2020 Tokyo Oympics.