Faith Kipyegon: Tipp*d for greatness
After etching her name in the history books by breaking two world records inside eight days, Kenya’s trailblazing runner Faith Kipyegon seems to be giving solutions to team Kenya coaches ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest which are just 67 days away.
Kenya national athletics team coach Julius Kirwa has expressed his glee after a Faith Kipyegon extraordinary show in Paris and Florence where the two time Olympic and World champion pushed herself to break previous time barriers in women’s 5000m and 1500m respectively.
The 29-year old mom gave the world a two moments of absolute magic under the lights in Italy and France to become the only athlete to pride in 5000m and 1500m world records.
During the Diamond meeting in Florence, Kipyegon ran brilliantly as she clocked 3:49.11,writing history as the first woman to run under 3:50 mark by claiming the women’s 1500m record that had been set by Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba in 2015.
While there were still excitement for her epic performance in Florence,Kipyegon went ahead to produce another milestone in her athletics career in Paris last Friday.
Racing in the women’s 5000m for the first time in 8-years, Kipyegon majestically smashed another world record in a time of 14:5.20, dethroning the former world record holder Letesnbet Gidey of Ethiopia who clocked 14:07.94 in second position.
Coach Kirwa says that the feat achieved by Kipyegon would provide solutions to team Kenya and noting that he is open to seeing her run both 5000m and her speciality 1500m in Budapest in two months’ time should the World Championships program be favourable and also subject to the athlete management approval.
“You need to use your best tool for good delivery in your respective work. Faith will really be of great help to us in some areas. When the coaches meet, we will discuss which races she would take part in at the world championships.
“She will tell us how she feels about the two events and believe Faith Kipyegon can save us in areas we feel we are not strong enough. However, as you know, Diamond League is different from the world championships. First the program has to favour her in terms of spacing of events that is the 1500m and 5000m. Sometimes the events can be close to each other which would make it impossible for her to double. We also have our national trials and she also tell us how she feels together with her management,” elated coach Kirwa told People Daily Sport.
While coach Kirwa is joyful of getting answers ahead of Athletics Kenya trials next month at the Kasarani Stadium,he praised the superb runner for her continuous discipline terming it as the main propeller of her success thus far.
“Faith is a very disciplined athlete and that has raised her to world athletics greatness. Since she was a junior, she has been keen to instructions from the coaches and am really glad to see her break the records. It is not the end though, she still has about five years to do duty for Kenya on the track. It is satisfying to witness her reclaim these records that were previously taken away from us by our opponents.
In the previous edition of the World Athletics Championships held in Eugene, USA, Faith Kipyegon overshadowed her opponents to bag her second 1500m world title in style.
However,the Kenya did not manage to grab a gold medal in the women’s 5000m with Beatrice Chebet now a World Cross Country and Commonwealth champion settling for silver after finishing second behind Tsegay Gudaf of Ethiopia.
