History was made at the Florence Diamond League on Friday as Kenya’s middle-distance runner Faith Kipyegon set a new world record to win the women’s 1500m event.
The Olympic Games and World 1500m champion shattered the previous record held by Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba in 2015 after winning Friday’s race with a time of 3 minutes and 49.11 seconds.
She fended off competition from Britian’s Laura Muir who finished second in 3:77.09 and Australia’s Jessica Hall who came third in a time of 3:57.29.
The new world record caps Kipyegon’s dominance in the women’s 1500m having won the World Championships title in 2017 and 2022, then Olympic Games gold medal in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
Since her Diamond League debut in 2015, the 29-year-old has won 17 races which include series wins in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2022.
Africa’s fastest woman, Josee Ta Lou was the other woman to win gold in the Florence meet as she dipped under 11 seconds to finish the women’s 100m in a time of 10.97 seconds.
The Ivory Coast star beat Germany’s Gina Luckenkemper in 11.09 seconds and Britain’s Imani Lansiquot in 11.16 seconds.
In the highly-competitive men’s 100m race, Africa’s fastest man Ferdinand Omanyala settled for a second place behind world 100m champion Fred Kerley of the Unites States of America.
Kerley won the race in 9.94 seconds while Kenya’s Omanyala crossed the finish line in 10.05 seconds.
The next stop for the 2023 Wanda Diamond League will be the French city of Paris on June 9.
