Faith Kipyegon: Gudaf Tsegay knelt before me and asked for forgiveness
Faith Kipyegon of Kenya (right) clashes with Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia during the Women's 5000m Final at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France on August 05, 2024.
The three-time 1,500m Olympics champion Faith Kipyegon has revealed that she has forgiven Tsegay Gudaf after their alteration during the 5,000m race after she asked for forgiveness.
Kipyegon who doubled at the just concluded games managed to bag a gold medal in the 1,500m and a silver medal in the 5,000m race where her compatriot Beatrice Chebet bagged a gold medal.
This was the third time after she first won at the Rio de Janeiro in 2016 before defending her title at the 2020 Tokyo Games and winning once again at the Paris Games.
Kipyegon in an interview on JKL on Citizen TV said that while competing in such a race, teamwork and concentration are what is needed but when the shoving started, she lost focus hence winning a silver medal while her competitor Gudaf finished ninth in the distance.
“After the 1,500m heats, she came and knelt before me and asked me to forgive her and because this is sports and I need her in competition I just forgave her. We need each other to push ourselves to the limit and break records.
“While I was leading the race, she came to my side and I was trying hard to avoid getting inside the line because I would have been automatically disqualified and I had to remain strong not to step inside the line,” said Kipyegon who confirmed that they are now great friends with Gudaf.
She said that she felt for Gudaf because she went back home without a medal, something she said demoralises an athlete after working for four years to get good results.
“I really felt for her because she competed in 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m for not getting a medal after all her effort but I think it’s because we started with trouble in the 5,000m race,” said Kipyegon.
She said that she wasn’t disappointed in winning a silver as many said after the race but she was just surprised that she had been disqualified. After an appeal from Team Kenya, her silver medal was reinstated.
Kipyegon said that she is glad she has inspired many women by competing and winning medals, which is a testimony that you can go on maternity leave and get back to competition and do well.
“Discipline has kept me going because I have to listen and follow what my coaches are telling me and add that to my young daughter Alain, I have to work hard for her so that she can also be inspired just like the way I’m inspiring young mothers,” added Kipyegon.
In terms of competition, she said that competition was on another level and at one time she thought Kenyans would go back home empty handed but she is happy that they managed to come back home with 11 medals.
Kipyegon also said that they had a chat with Eliud Kipchoge who pulled out of the race after he got some challenges where she said that despite having dropped, he is still one of the greatest marathoners.
In her parting shot, Kipyegon said that you have not seen anything yet in terms of breaking more records and good performance in general.
