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Chebet, Kipyegon ease through women's 5,000m heats to set up big clash on Saturday
Kenya's Beatrice Chebet crosses the finish line to win her heat in the women's 5000m at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 18, 2025.
What you need to know:
- Kipyegon will be looking to cement her legacy as the most decorated Kenyan at the world championships.
- Chebet and Kipyegon last clashed at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the women’s 5,000m where Chebet prevailed.
The stage is set for an epic women’s 5,000 metres final at the 2025 Tokyo World Athletics Championships on Saturday at the Japan National Stadium.
Newly-crowned women’s 10,000m world champion Beatrice Chebet and women’s 1,500m gold medallist Faith Kipyegon, will face-off for another piece of history after they eased through their respective qualifying heats on Thursday.
The first heat was a replica of the women’s 10,000m final as Chebet jogged through in 14 minutes and 45.59 seconds, edging out Italian Nadia Battocletti to second place in 14:46.36.
Kipyegon, who is also the world 5,000m title holder from 2023 Budapest, breezed through on the home straight to finish second in the second heat in 14:56.71 behind Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, the 2022 world 5,000m champion, in 14.56.46.
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.
Agnes Ng'etich of Kenya finished eighth in the second heat in 14:57.90 to also qualify for the final.
Chebet is on the cusp of becoming the first woman to hold both the Olympic and world 10,000m and 5,000m titles at the same time as well as world records over the two distance races.
Kipyegon, who became the first women to win both the 1,500m and 5,000m world titles in 2023 Budapest, will be looking to cement her legacy as the most decorated Kenyan at the world championships, having already won five gold medals in the history of the biennial event.
Chebet claimed the women’s world 10,000m gold on the opening day of the Tokyo championships on Saturday while Kipyegon became the first woman to win four world 1,500m titles on Tuesday.
Both Kipyegon and Tsegay are chasing their second world 5,000m title while Chebet, a silver medallist over the distance in 2022 and bronze medallist in 2023, will be looking for her maiden title.
Chebet and Kipyegon last clashed at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the women’s 5,000m where Chebet prevailed with Kipyegon settling for silver.
