Faith Kipyegon underscored her status as the greatest 1500m female athlete of all time with an imperious performance to clinch Kenya’s first gold medal at the World Championships in Oregon on Tuesday morning.

In the finals, she obliterated the field to win the race in a time of 3:52.96 to give Kenya the elusive first gold medal at the championships.

She is yet to make her mind on whether to stick to her signature race when the biannual championships heads to Budapest, Hungary next year.

“For sure I have accomplished everything I ever wanted in the race I love,” said Kipyegon after her victory in Oregon.

“I have now won two back-to-back Olympic gold medals, I have won the world title twice and twice a silver medallist. I am proud of what I have been able to achieve so far, I know God has been faithful to me,” she added.

There has been talk that she is about to scale to 5000m and weigh in on the challenge over the 12 and half laps race.

“Definitely I will do 5000m at some point, I can’t say when precisely but it will come,” said the athlete who will not be heading to Birmingham, England for the Commonwealth Games.

Her focus is on the 10th Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season at Herculis Monaco next month.

Faith Kipyegon set a new national record and personal best at Herculis ahead of her Tokyo triumph last season. She will be out to claim her second Diamond League win of the season in the 1500m when she returns next month.

“When in Monaco one thing to expect is fast times, I don’t want to be pre-emptive, but truth is I want to run fast,”underscored the athlete who lowered her national record to 3:52.07 at the same event last year, moving to fourth on the all-time list.

Yesterday she blazed down Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, clocking 3:54.52 for bronze while Britain’s Laura Muir timed 3:55.28 for bronze at third.

The double Olympic champion now became double world title, reclaiming the title she lost in 2019 to Netherland’s Sifan Hassan who didn’t do the 1500m this year.

Tsegay took the pacing duties into her own hands, bolting to the front alongside compatriot Freweyni Hailu with Kipyegon sticking on their coattails.

She kicked up the pace a bit and opened up the lead, Tsegay following her.

At the bell, Kipyegon laid down her marker pushing up the pace a bit. Tsegay looked behind for her team-mate but could not see her and threw her hands in agony. At this point, it was Kipyegon’s time.

The Kenyan put on her devastating last kick, opening the gap more while the Ethiopians’ facial expressions showed her frustration and pain in trying to keep up.

Kipyegon started her season with a second place finish in the 3,000m during the Doha Diamond League series where she said that she was using the event for build up and endurance.

Victory in Oregon made it a fourth global outdoor championships gold.