In Tokyo
One of the biggest match-ups at the 2025 World Athletics Championships will play out on Saturday at Tokyo National Stadium from 3:30pm (Kenyan time), when defending champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya comes up against her compatriot, Olympics champion Beatrice Chebet, in the final of women’s 5,000 metres race.
The two athletes have cast a long shadow on Saturday's final, never mind that the field is teeming with top talent in the frame of Olympics 10,000m silver medallist Nadia Battocletti from Italy, women’s 10km run record holder Agnes Jebet Ng’etich from Kenya, and 2022 world 5,000m champion Tsegay Gudaf from Ethiopia, who is a former world record holder over the distance
It’s one of the biggest match-ups of the championship. The other awe-inspiring match-ups of the championship have been between; Kenya’s Faith Cherotich and Winfred Yavi in women’s 3,000m final in which Cherotich triumphed; defending champion Letsile Tebogo, Kenneth Bednareck and Noah Lyles of USA, and Brian Levell of Jamaica in men’s 200m final which Lylles won; Jamaica’s Seville Oblique and Noah Lylles of USA in men’s 100m final which Oblique won; and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi and world champion Marco Arop of Canada in men’s 800m final.
Kenya's Faith Kipyegon celebrates with her gold medal and a Kenya flag after winning the World Athletics Championships women's 1500m final at Japan National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan on September 16, 2025.
Photo credit: Dylan Martinez | Reuters
The other showstoppers here have been witnessed in men’s 400m final involving Botswana’s duo of Busang Collen Kebinatshipi and Bayapo Ndori, and Jereem Richards from Trinidad and Tobago which Kebinatshipi won, and in men’s javelin final between Granada’s Anderson Peters, Keshorn Walcott from Trinidad and Tobago, and America’s Curtis Thompson.
Chebet is the Olympics 10,000m and 5,000m champion. Last Saturday, she added the world 10,000m title to her trophy cabinet.
Chebet also holds three world records – in women-only and mixed 5km run (13:58.6), the women’s 5,000m (13:58.06), and women’s 10,000m (28:54.14).
Kenya's Beatrice Chebet celebrates after winning the women's 10,000m gold at World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 13, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
In winning women’s 5,000m and 10,000m titles at 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Chebet became only the third woman in history to clinch both events at a single edition.
Today (Saturday), she will be seeking to be the first woman to hold both Olympics and world titles over 5,000m and 10,000m concurrently.
For her part, defending champion Kipyegon won a record fourth world title in the women’s 1,500m on Tuesday, timing 3:52.15 to lead Dorcas Ewoi to a Kenyan 1-2 finish. Kipyegon is the only woman to have won three straight Olympics titles over 1,500m, having triumphed in 2016 Rio de Janeiro, 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris.
She has won a total of seven championship titles, putting her in the league of Jamaica’s Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce who has 13 and Usain Bolt who has eight. She holds the world record over 1,500m (3:48.68) and the mile (4:07.64).
Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay (left) celebrates winning her heat with second placed Faith Kipyegon of Kenya at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 18, 2025.
After finishing second behind Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay in her semi-final heat on Wednesday, Kipyegon said: “May the best athlete on the day win. I will be competing against my friends, and we shall work together to deliver medals.”
For her part, Chebet said: “We are friends, but when it comes to the track, we shall compete. If Faith wins, I will celebrate her. If I win, Faith will celebrate me.”
Kenya's Beatrice Chebet crosses the line to win the Women's 10,000m gold at World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 13, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
The last time the two went head-to-head was was at the final of the women’s 5,000m at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, where Chebet triumphed in 14:28.56. Kipyegon, who had been elbowed by Gufa, took silver in 14:29.60.
Chebet holds the fastest time in the quality field followed by Tsegay (14:00.21), Jebet Ng’etich (14:01.29), and Battocletti (14:23.15). A meeting of champions awaits fans at the 67,750-seater Tokyo National Stadium.
