In Paris
Faith Kipyegon let out a scream at the finish line of Saturday’s Olympic Games’ 1,500 metres final that could have out-decibelled – if there’s such a word – the roar of the 80,000-strong crowd at the Stade de France.
Besides winning the gold medal in an Olympic record time of three minutes and 51.29 seconds, almost two seconds off the mark she set at Tokyo 2020, Kipgeyon became the first athlete – male or female – to win three, back-to-back Olympic 1,500m titles.
And better still, it let go the anger of earning an on-and-off-and-on-again silver medal awarded in the 5,000m after having initially been withdrawn over claims she “obstructed” Ethiopian world record holder Gudaf Tsegay.
The controversy around the 5,000m metres final took its toll on Kipyegon who had to take time off and soak in wise words of counsel from her husband, Timothy Kitum, himself an Olympic medalist who bagged bronze in the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics.
Kipyegon, 30, the World Athletics World Female Track Athlete of the Year for 2023, just couldn’t sleep easy before letting it all out at the finish line of the 1,500m on Saturday night, her victory coming one hour after compatriot Emmanuel Wanyonyi held off charging Canadian Marco Arop to win the 800m gold in a personal best 1:41.19, the South Sudan-born Arop settling for silver in an area record 1:41.20 and Algeria’s beleaguered Djamel Sedjati bronze in 1:41.50.
Beleaguered because of reports filtering through that agents from France’s Central Office for Combating Attacks on the Environment and Public Health (OCLAESP), also in charge of the fight against doping, carried out searches in the Olympic Village last Thursday as part of an investigation targeting Sedjati and his coach Amar Benida.
Meanwhile, still on Saturday night, another Kenyan, Ronald Kwemoi, produced a masterful last 200m to snatch silver in the 5,000m (13:15.04) behind Norwegian gold medallist Jakob Ingebrigtsen (13:13.66) who atoned for his medal-less 1,500m run earlier in the week.
Kwemoi, who has been pendulumning between 1,500m and 5,000m, said he got more than what he had anticipated.
“A championship is not based on time only. It’s a tactics race. There are no pacemakers. Before the race, I was looking for a finish in the top six. But I’ve finished in the top two. This makes me happy. I’ll celebrate at home, not here,” Kwemoi said.
Kipyegon, meanwhile, revealed that she spoke for an hour with her husband, and was also in conversation with her six-year-old daughter Alyn, before also speaking with Team Kenya officials and members of her management company, Global Sports Communications (GSC), led by founder Jos Hermens, who all tried to restore her confidence.
“After what I went through in the 5,000m, I didn’t sleep until yesterday. So making history today is really… I don’t know how to express it,” she was lost for words.
“I really thank all who helped me, my coach (Patrick Sang), my management (GSC), family, fans from all over the world who told me ‘you are gonna make it."
“The first person who spoke to me, for more than one hour, was my husband (Kitum). He told me ‘you’ve got it over the 1,500m and I believe in you.’
“My daughter also told me ‘over the semis (of the 5,000m) you were looking really good’ and I told her ‘I’m gonna make you proud over the 1,500m final."
“A championship race is anyone’s race so for me to have won and made history? I’m still feeling crazy!”
Australia’s Jessica Hull and Briton Georgia Bell took silver and bronze behind Kipyegon who confessed that she kept aside the silver medal.
“Having been disqualified and again handed the silver, it was not really as sweet as I wanted… I was happy for Beatrice (Chebet) for winning the gold and I was happy with the silver.
“I put it aside and focused on this race, the 1,500m.”
Meanwhile, Wanyonyi said his gun-to-tape performance was inspired by pep talk offered by none other than world record holder over the 800m, David Rudisha who is here for the Games.
“This race was tough for me. I came to Paris, I told myself this race is not easy because it’s the Olympics, so I need to run my PB to win this. That’s why I decided to run in front. I thank my coach for supporting me, I thank my family for prayers. This Olympics is not easy,” said Wanyonyi.
“I had spoken to Rudisha before the race and he told me I need to go in front, control the race and push the pace from start to finish… I wanted to run the way he did at the London Olympics when he broke the world record.”
At the World Athletics Championships in Budapest last year, Wanyonyi was beaten to the tape by Arop, and he wasn’t ready to allow lightning to strike twice.
“I thought he would repeat what he did last year because of experience. So this time I told Arop, 'Nobody can beat me twice. You need to work hard if you feel to beat me,” disclosed Wanyonyi who warned that it will be difficult to beat Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91.
“Not now, maybe in the future,” he noted.
