Defending her 1,500m title at the Tokyo Olympics, Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon, qualified for the final after an extremely strong run. The Kenyan won her semifinal series with 3:56.80 minutes. This is not only the fastest semi-final run in any race in history but also the fourth-strongest achievement in the history of the Olympic Games. The only faster runs were registered in 1980, 1988 and 1992 Olympic titles.
Four more after Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon came down in less than 4 minutes in this run and secured a place in the final. Ethiopian’s Freweyni Gebreezibeher finished second with 3: 57.54 minutes, Canada’s Gabriela DeBues-Stafford finished third with 3:58.28 minutes, Jessica Hull (Australia) with a new record of 3:58.81 minutes and Nozomi Tanaka (Japan) with 3:59.19 minutes.
The other semifinal was won by the Olympic champion 5,000m from Tokyo Sifan Hassan (Netherlands) with 4:00.24 minutes. Second in this series was the European champion from Berlin 2018 Laura Muir (Great Britain) with 4:00.73 minutes.
The women’s 1500 meters final is on August 6.
