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Beatrice Chebet, Faith Kipyegon fine-tune for Tokyo World Championships
Beatrice Chebet (left) and Faith Kipyegon after a media briefing at Talanta Plaza in Nairobi on July 8, 2025.
What you need to know:
- Beatrice Chebet and Faith Kipyegon recently broke world records in their specialties.
- Kipyegon, on the other hand, goes into Saturday’s race with a personal best of 8:23.55.
Double Olympics champion Beatrice Chebet will be featuring in unfamiliar territory when she lines up for the women’s 1,500m at the Silesia Diamond League in Poland on Saturday.
Chebet will be using the event to improve her speed as she prepares for this year's World Athletics Championships slated for September 13-21 in Tokyo, Japan.
She will compete in both the 5,000m and 10,000m events in the Japan championships.
Three-time Olympics 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon will also be in Poland, featuring in the 3,000m race. Kipyegon will compete in both the 1,500m and 5,000m races in Tokyo. She is the defending champion for both titles.
Chebet and Kipyegon recently broke world records in their specialties. Chebet broke the 5,000m record when she clocked 13:58.06 at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League in the US on July 5, becoming the first woman to run under 14 minutes.
Beatrice Chebet of Kenya celebrates winning the women's 5,000m race in a world record 13:58.06 during the 50th Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field on July 5, 2025.
She made the team represent Kenya at the Tokyo in 5000m race following her US victory. Chebet won the race ahead of Agnes Jebet Ngetich, while Margaret Akidor was third. Ngetich and Akidor will compete alongside Kipyegon in the Tokyo games.
After her exploits, Chebet went ahead to compete at the Athletics Kenya national trials in the 10,000m. She finished third and also made the team to represent Kenya in the race in Tokyo.
“I will be competing in the 1,500m race in Silesia. Basically. I’ll be using the race to taste my speed. Speed is critical in both events that I will be competing at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo,” said Chebet in an interview.
With a personal best of 4:06.09, Chebet will battle it out with some of the most experienced athletes such as Ethiopia’s Welteji Diribe (3:51.44), who is currently ranked second in the world behind Kipyegon. She will also face Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell (3:52.61), Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay (3:50.30), and Ireland’s Sarah Healy (3:57.15) among others.
Last year, Chebet triumphed at the Olympic Games bagging gold medals in the 10,000m and the 5,000m races.
Faith Kipyegon of Kenya reacts after winning the women's 1,500m race in a world record time of 3:48.68 during the 50th Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field on July 5, 2025.
Kipyegon, on the other hand, goes into Saturday’s race with a personal best of 8:23.55. She will compete against Ethiopians Marta Alemayo (8:32.20), Mekedes Alemeshete (8:36.71), Likina Amebaw (8:24.29), Aleshign Baweke (8:32.88), Australia’s Jessica Hull (8:25.82), Maureen Koster (8:26.30) from Netherlands, among others.
Kenyans will also feature in the men’s 1,500m where former World Under-20 champion Reynold Cheruiyot (3:30.30) will come face-to-face with the 2019 World champion Timothy Cheruiyot (3:28.28). Abel Kipsang (3:29.11) and US-based Festus Lagat (3:29.03) complete the Kenyan contingent.
Africa Games silver medallist Lilian Odira will feature in the 800m race as she sets out to gauge her form ahead of the Tokyo championships.
