Three-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon is set to launch her 2025 track season with a 1000m race at the Xiamen Diamond League in China on April 26.
The four-time world champion holds the African record of 2:29.15 over the distance— just 0.2 seconds shy of Svetlana Masterkova’s long-standing world record.
Kipyegon has been a serial record-breaker on the Diamond League circuit, rewriting history books four times across 2023 and 2024.
With her sights set on the Tokyo World Championships later in September, Kipyegon will be eager to kick off her campaign in an emphatic fashion.
Kipyegon kicked off her training in January and has not featured in any race since the inaugural Athlos meeting in September, where she clocked 4:04.79 to claim victory .
The 31-year-old has been the undisputed queen of middle-distance running in recent years, adding a fifth Diamond Trophy to her collection at last year’s series final in Brussels.
She clocked 3:54.75 to edge out Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji (3:55.25) and Australia’s Jessica Hull (3:59.99), cementing her dominance.
The triumph in Belgium was another chapter in her decorated career, with previous Diamond League titles from Brussels 2017, Zurich 2021 and 2022 and Eugene 2023.
One more trophy would see her equal Sandra Elkasevic’s record, making her the joint-most successful female athlete in Diamond League history.
Kipyegon’s 2024 season was nothing short of spectacular. She stormed to her third Olympic 1500m gold in Paris, breaking her Olympic record with a blistering 3:51.29.
Hull (3:52.56) and Great Britain’s Georgia Bell (3:52.61) settled for silver and bronze, respectively.
She then bagged silver in the 5000m, clocking a season-best 14:29.60 behind Beatrice Chebet (14:28.56) and ahead of the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan (14:30.61).
Adding to her historic feats, Kipyegon shattered her own 1500m world record at the Paris Diamond League, running 3:49.04 to eclipse her 2023 Florence mark of 3:49.11.
Her other accolades include four World titles; three in the 1500m (London 2017, Eugene 2022 and Budapest 2023) as well as the 5000m title from Budapest 2023. She boasts two silver medals from the World Championships in Beijing 2015 and Doha 2019.
