Paris Olympics preview: 1500m

Women's 1500m

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• Faith Kipyegon has the chance to become the first woman to win three titles in the same individual track event at the Olympics
• Field features three of the five fastest 1500m runners in history, with Gudaf Tsegay and Jessica Hull in the mix
• Sifan Hassan could line up, with the 1500m one of four events she is entered for in Paris

Speaking at the end of 2023, Faith Kipyegon explained how she had been determined to break the world 1500m record to “complete” her “historical journey” in the event. She had Olympic and world titles, but no world record. 

Her 3:49.11 in Florence just over a year ago changed all that, and after taking almost a second off the previous world 1500m record with her performance, Kipyegon proceeded to set world records in the 5000m and the mile, too.

Historical journey completed, then? Not for Kipyegon. 

After winning the 1500m and 5000m at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest – becoming the first woman to accomplish that double and secure a hattrick of 1500m titles – the Kenyan star ended her 2023 track campaign with a 1500m win at the Wanda Diamond League final in Eugene. 

A muscle injury interrupted the start of her 2024 season but the 30-year-old returned to competition at the Kenyan Olympic trials, running 3:53.98 for 1500m and 14:46.28 for 5000m at the altitude of Nairobi. Then she went to the Diamond League meeting in Paris, where she warmed up for the Olympics by breaking the world 1500m record again – clocking 3:49.04.

Now she returns to the French capital with the opportunity to become the first woman to win the same individual track event three times at the Olympics. Only one other woman in the history of the Games has ever claimed a threepeat and that’s Anita Wlodarczyk in the hammer.

As well as possessing the two fastest performances of all time, Kipyegon hasn’t been beaten in the 1500m since 2021, and even then she rebounded to win her second Olympic title.

Like she did in Budapest, Kipyegon targets a 1500m and 5000m double in Paris. But this time, the 5000m comes first. If all goes to plan, she’ll race the 5000m final on Monday 5 August and then return to the track for the 1500m heats the next day. The semifinals are on 8 August, and the final is two days after that.

Her competition in both events could include Gudaf Tsegay – Ethiopia’s world 5000m champion in 2022 and world 10,000m champion in 2023, and the athlete who improved Kipyegon’s world 5000m record to 14:00.21 in September.

Like Kipyegon, Tsegay is also in the 1500m form of her life right now, having run 3:50.30 – the fourth-fastest time in history – in Xiamen in April. She followed that by clocking 29:05.92 for 10,000m in Eugene in May, a performance that places her No.3 all time. 

Tsegay hasn’t competed since then, but should she race every event she is entered for in Paris, the 27-year-old will also have the 10,000m in her legs as it is sandwiched between the 1500m semifinals and final, on 9 August.

Such is the standard of the event, the entry list includes another five women in the world all-time top 13. Australia’s Jessica Hull set a world 2000m record of 5:19.70 in Monaco on 12 July and just five days before that she had achieved an Oceanian record of 3:50.83 when finishing second behind Kipyegon’s world 1500m record run in Paris.

“Seeing what Faith has done has thrown the gauntlet out to all of us,” Hull said later.

Tsegay’s compatriots Birke Haylom and world 1500m silver medallist Diribe Welteji have also made their way up the all-time list with respective PBs of 3:53.22 and 3:53.75 this year, while Great Britain’s Laura Muir ran a national record of 3:53.79 to finish third behind Kipyegon and Hull in Paris.

And then there’s Sifan Hassan, whose incredible range has seen her win global titles in the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m, as well as claim major marathon wins in London and Chicago. The Dutch Tokyo Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion, who won the world 1500m title in 2019, is yet to announce which events she will contest in Paris, but the 1500m is one of the four she is entered for. 

Nikki Hiltz ran 3:55.33 to win at the national trials and leads the US entries, joined by Emily Mackay and Elle St. Pierre.

 

Men's 1500m

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• Jakob Ingebrigtsen vs Josh Kerr as rivalry intensifies
• Timothy Cheruiyot targets another podium place
• Yared Nuguse and Brian Komen also among medal contenders

Jakob Ingebrigtsen vs Josh Kerr has fast become one of the sport’s great rivalries.

Ingebrigtsen: Norway’s defending Olympic 1500m champion who recently improved his own European record to 3:26.73 in Monaco.

And Kerr: Great Britain’s world champion who beat Ingebrigtsen the last time they clashed in the mile at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene in May.

“It’s a good fight,” Ingebrigtsen said after that race. “Some of my competitors have clearly taken a step in the right direction but not a big step – not as big of a step that maybe is needed to be the favourite in Paris. But I think if anything, this is going to be an exciting summer.”

Since then, Ingebrigtsen has been unbeaten – winning the Diamond League 1500m on home soil in Oslo, European 1500m and 5000m titles in Rome, a Norwegian Championships double, and that 1500m in Monaco for his biggest statement so far.

Running 3:26.73, the 23-year-old strengthened his place at No.4 on the world all-time list and beat many of the athletes who will likely line up among his challengers in Paris.

Olympic bronze medallist Kerr, meanwhile, has raced just twice since his Eugene mile win, in the UK Championships 800m heats and final. Prior to that 3:45.34 national record-breaking performance in Eugene that places him sixth all time, the 26-year-old won the world indoor 3000m title on home soil in Glasgow.

Their head-to-head record stands at 8-1 in Ingebrigtsen’s favour when it comes to 1500m finals, but since his Olympic title win in Tokyo, the Norwegian has been unable to assert dominance in the discipline on the global stage. He secured 1500m silver behind Kerr’s compatriot Jake Wightman in Oregon in 2022 but followed that with the 5000m title five days later, and did the same in Budapest last year – finishing runner-up to Kerr in the shorter event before retaining his 5000m title four days on.

If Ingebrigtsen can do it this time, a win in Paris would see him become just the second man after Sebastian Coe in 1980 and 1984 to win two Olympic 1500m titles.

But if Ingebrigtsen can't replicate his recent form in the French capital, then Kerr and a number of other challengers will be ready to kick.

Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot won the world title in 2019, claimed world silver in 2017 and finished second to Ingebrigtsen in Tokyo.

The 28-year-old, who set his PB of 3:28.28 in 2021, also followed Ingebrigtsen over the line in Oslo and Monaco this year, running 3:28.71 – his fourth-fastest time – at the latter.

If the race is fast paced, then Yared Nuguse will also be a strong contender. The 25-year-old finished fifth in Budapest but claimed world indoor 3000m silver behind Kerr in Glasgow and ran a North American 1500m record of 3:29.02 in Oslo last year. Cole Hocker and Hobbs Kessler join him on the US team.

Kenya’s Brian Komen took three-and-a-half seconds off his PB to run 3:28.80 for third – one place ahead of Nuguse – in Monaco and will want to build on that in Paris. Neil Gourley was fifth in Monaco and he joins Kerr on the British team.

Home hopes are led by Azeddine Habz, who won the Diamond League race in Marrakech and ran 3:30.80 for third place in Oslo, one spot ahead of Portugal’s Isaac Nader in a PB of 3:30.84.

Others hoping to feature in the final will be Australia’s Oliver Hoare and Norway’s world bronze medallist Narve Gilje Nordas, while 19-year-old Niels Laros of the Netherlands steps up after running a world U20 1000m record of 2:14.37 in July.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics