Saturday, December 7, 2024

Genzebe breaks 22-year-old record while Kipruto misses a chance

Genzebe Dibaba made history in the Stade Louis II with a women’s world 1500m record of 3:50.07, surpassing Qu Yunxia’s mark of 3:50.46, set at the 1993 Chinese National Games. Kenyan Olympic champion Brimin Kipruto missed a chance to make history.
After world indoor 800m champion Chanelle Price had paced her through 400m in 1:00.31 and 800m in 2:04.52 the Ethiopian still had European champion Sifan Hassan for company as she passed the bell in 2:50.3. But she kicked on for a monumental win that eclipsed a mark many observers expected to have stood for at least another 22 years.
Six women ran faster than four minutes. Hassan clocked a national record of 3:56.05 in second, while Shannon Rowbury broke the North American record with 3:56.29 in third.
“I think Tirunesh will be happy, all of Ethiopia will be happy,” added the sparkling eyes ever smiling of her older sister, who recently gave birth to her first child.
Kenya’s Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion Brimin Kipruto produced one of the great track performances of all time as he missed the seven-year-old world record by just one hundredth of a second.
A stupendous last lap of around 60 seconds was enough for the 25-year-old from Keiyo District to see off the lingering challenge of Kenya’s past and future Olympic champion, Ezekiel Kemboi and win in 7:53.64 – just shy of the 7:53.53 run at the 2004 Brussels meeting by Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen.

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