In Oregon, USA
The women’s 5,000 metres race of the 2025 Prefontaine Diamond League Meeting planned for Saturday in Eugene, Oregon, is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated races in recent times, and it is not difficult to see why.
Organisers of Prefontaine Diamond league, the ninth event out of 15 competitions in the 2025 Diamond League calendar, have lined up a stellar field for the race. The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising 15 invitational athletics meetings.
The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions, and women’s 5000m race in Saturday's meeting in Oregon will feature Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet from Kenya who is also the 10,000m world record holder, 5,000m world record holder Tsegay Gudaf from Ethiopia, and 10km world record holder Agnes Jebet Ngetich of Kenya.
The race will feature top athletes, and Chebet has declared that she will attempt to break the world record over the distance, setting the stage for a blockbuster race. Chebet, who has performed consistently well on the global stage, has won Diamond League races this season.
She runs tactically, and employs a strong finishing kick to win races. On Saturday, she will be out to break Tsegay’s 5000m world record of 14 minutes and 0.21 seconds (14:00.21) which the Ethiopian registered in 2023 at the same venue.
Add that to the fact that Athletics Kenya will be using the race to select 5,000m and 10,000m teams for the 2025 World Athletics Championships, and you have a race befitting a blockbuster at Hayward Field in Oregon.
Like she did at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, double Olympics gold medallist Chebet plans to compete in both women’s 5,000m and 10,000m races at the World Athletics Championships slated for September 13-21 in Tokyo.
Beatrice Chebet of Kenya and Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay race to the finish line in the women's 5000m heats during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on August 23, 2023.
Photo credit: File | AFP
Last year when Kenya did her 5,000m and 10,000m Olympics team selection at the Prefontaine Diamond League meeting, Chebet broke the world record time over 10,000m. She clocked 28:54.14, becoming the first woman to run the distance in less than 29 minutes. Her compatriots Lilian Rengeruk Kasait, and Margaret Chelimo finished second and third respectively.
“It’s yet another time to go back to Prefontaine Classic meeting in Oregon. I have good memories of Oregon, having won there last year in a world record time. Even as we compete on Saturday, I’m targeting a place in Team Kenya for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in the 5,000m race,” she told Nation Sport on phone from Oregon on Thursday.
The Iten-based Jebet ran 28:46 to lower the 10km world record previously held by Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw by 28 seconds in Valencia in 2024. En-route to the 10km record, she also broke the 5km record after clocking 14:13.
On Saturday, she competes in her first Diamond League race. She has been competing in , having competed in Grand Slam races which came to a conclusion this month and the race is expected to be fast due to a competitive field.
Other Kenyans in the mix are Africa 10,000m champion Janeth Chepngetich, US-based Margaret Akidor, Maurine Chebor, Caroline Kariba, Hellen Lobun, Caroline Nyaga and Susan Wanjiru complete the Kenyan contingent in the 5,000m.
Apart from Gudaf, the Ethiopian team will also have Marta Alemayo, Likina Amebaw, Asayech Ayichew, Aleshigh Baweke, Fantaye Belayneh, Medina Eisa, Tsigie Gebreselama, Birke Haylom, Aynadis Mebratu, Hirut Meshesha, Yenawa Nberet, and Fotyen Tesfay.
Weini Kelati Frezghi (USA) and Konstanze Klosterhalfen (Germany) completed the list in the 5,000m race.
The 2025 Diamond League season started in Xiamen, China on April 26, and has visited Shangai, China (May 3), Doha (May 16), Rabat (May 25), Rome (June 6), Oslo (June 12), Stockholm (June 15), and Paris (June 19). The next stop is Eugene on Saturday.
