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Fast Women: Faith Kipyegon extends her 1500m streak
And "Little Faith," Faith Cherotich, earns an upset win in the steeplechase.
Issue 315
Faith Kipyegon, Mary Moraa, Beatrice Chebet, and Faith Cherotich pull off a Kenyan sweep at the Diamond League Final
It’s hard to imagine another athlete becoming as dominant as Faith Kipyegon of Kenya has been in the 1500m any time soon. On Saturday evening in Brussels, Kipyegon powered to her fifth 1500m win at the Diamond League Final in eight years, and her fourth in a row, running 3:54.75.
Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji, who finished just out of the medals in Paris, put up a good fight and took second in 3:55.25. And Paris silver medalist Jessica Hull of Australia finished third in 3:56.99. Her time would have been a PR at the start of season, but she’s had such a breakthrough year that now it’s only her sixth-fastest. (1500m replay)
The Diamond League Final has traditionally been a season-ending meet, but the track landscape is shifting, and that includes the addition of Athlos, which will take place in New York on September 26. Kipyegon and Welteji are slated to meet again in the 1500m, and this time they’ll be racing for double the money—$60,000 compared to the $30,000 top prize at the Diamond League Final. (Plus, meet founder Alexis Ohanian sweetened the pot for Olympic gold medalists, like Kipyegon.)
Another athlete who is scheduled to race in New York City is Olympic bronze medalist Mary Moraa of Kenya, who earned her second 800m title at the Diamond League Final over the weekend, running a season’s best of 1:56.56. Though the race was missing Olympic gold and silver medalists Keely Hodgkinson and Tsige Duguma (and, of course, Athing Mu), 1500m bronze medalist Georgia Bell of Great Britain helped make it more exciting when she went around Moraa with 200m to go. In the end, Moraa had a much stronger close, and she finished nearly a second ahead of Bell, who ran 1:57.50. But there was a moment of suspense in there. (800m replay)
Duguma hasn’t raced since the Olympics, but she’s entered in the Athlos 800m, so we’ll hopefully get to see her race Moraa one more time this season.
In the 5,000m, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet followed pacesetter Eleanor Fulton through 1600m, but after that, Chebet was on her own. She began to pull away from her competitors in the third kilometer, and she won in an impressive 14:09.82. Only four women have ever broken 14:10, and Chebet joined Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey as the only two to do so three times.
Though she has long been a top runner, Chebet has had a breakthrough year. She won the World Cross Country Championships in March, set the 10,000m world record in May, and won the Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m in August. The conditions and competition didn’t align in a way that allowed Chebet to take a real crack at the 5,000m world record at the end of the season, but if she can match this kind of form in the future, she should have a very good shot at it.
Ethiopia’s Medina Eisa, 19, finished second in 14:21.89, which is a pending world U20 record outdoors. The bummer here is that the performance wasn’t even a PR. Eisa ran 14:16.54 at last year’s London Diamond League meet, when she was only 18, but the performance wasn’t ratified because she wasn’t drug tested after the race. Hopefully she was this time. (5,000m highlights)
The biggest distance surprise of the Diamond League Final came in the steeplechase, where Olympic bronze medalist Faith Cherotich, 20, of Kenya pulled off the upset to win in 9:02.36. With one lap remaining, Cherotich, Olympic gold medalist Winfred Yavi, and Olympic silver medalist Peruth Chemutai were all together. The race seemed likely to go the way their last two races had, with Yavi kicking to the win. But Cherotich had the best closing speed this time. Yavi finished a close second (9:02.87), and Chemutai was third (9:07.60). (Steeplechase highlights)
It was an excellent meet for Kenya as they swept all of the middle-distance and distance races. (Results)
Other Diamond League Notes
After beginning the outdoor track season with an injury, Karissa Schweizer ended it on a positive note, finishing eighth in the 5,000m at the Diamond League Final in a season’s best of 14:36.88. After running 14:47.50 at the Zurich Diamond League meet on September 5th, she flew to New York and won the Fifth Avenue Mile in 4:14.8, tying the event record. And six days later, she was back in Europe, racing the Diamond League Final. “Jet lag is a choice,” she tweeted on Saturday, quoting Taylor Swift.
After finishing second in the 800m on Friday, Georgia Bell doubled back in the 1500m, where she finished seventh in 3:58.95. The race was her 27th of the year, and now she’s ready for a much-deserved break. Bell had a dream season, starting off hustling to get herself into meets, and finishing it with an Olympic bronze medal. “Goodbye track season 2024,” she wrote on Instagram. “Thank you for changing my life.” Bell, who also signed a Nike contract mid-season, confirmed over the weekend that she is not going back to her cybersecurity job, and she’ll focus on being a full-time athlete for a while.
The American women did not have a strong presence in the middle-distance and distance events at the Diamond League Final, except for in the steeplechase, where there were three of them. Gabbi Jennings led the way, finishing fifth in 9:09.89, which isn’t far off of her PR. Val Constien finished seventh in 9:13.31, and Olivia Markezich took ninth in 9:27.88. Markezich has had a particularly long year of racing, coming off of running three seasons in the NCAA. Hopefully she gets an extended break now.
There’s going to be less incentive for the top track athletes to be super fit early in the 2025 track season, because next year’s world championships don’t even begin until September 13.
Ethiopia’s Sembo Alemayew, who ran 9:00.83 to finish fifth in the steeplechase at the Olympic Games, was unable to compete in the Diamond League Final because she couldn’t get the required visa. “In April 2024, the European Union announced it will make it more difficult for Ethiopian citizens to receive European visas, in an attempt to leverage on the Ethiopian government, which is accused of failure to cooperate in taking back citizens found to be living illegally in the Schengen Zone,” her team wrote on Instagram
Mary Moraa competed on day one of the Diamond League Final, but she was back to cheer on her fellow athletes on day two. I love this shot the TV cameras got of Moraa lifting Beatrice Chebet up into the stands to celebrate her 5,000m win.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wasn’t eligible to compete in the Diamond League Final races because she didn’t run any Diamond League meets during the regular season. But she ran in 400m and 200m invitational races at the same meet. In Friday’s 400m, run in cool conditions and on a wet track, she won in 49.11 seconds. Roughly 10 minutes later, Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic won the Diamond League 400m in 49.45 seconds. Paulino is undefeated so far this season, so it’s a shame the two didn’t get to race head to head. On Saturday, in slightly better conditions, McLaughlin-Levrone ran 22.40 seconds to win her 200m race. And about 15 minutes later, Brittany Brown won the 200m in 22.20 seconds, earning her first Diamond League title. McLaughlin-Levrone’s time would have placed her second. She celebrated the end of the season with waffles.
Other News and Links
Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei was buried in Uganda on Saturday. This article includes additional details. Her former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, who allegedly set her on fire, died last Monday from the burns he suffered during his attack.
Sarah Lorge Butler reports that Nike’s Union Athletics Club will move from Oregon to Colorado. (Runner’s World) Head coach Pete Julian has long been based in Colorado, and has been commuting to Oregon several times per week for the team’s workouts.
Also from Lorge Butler: Molly Seidel went to Paris to watch the Olympic Games and fulfill sponsor obligations, and she wound up having an appendectomy. She now has to take a month off from running, and she’s hoping that it will help resolve some of the other issues she’s dealing with.
A strong field will race at the USATF 10K Championships on Saturday in Northport, New York. The entrants include Keira D’Amato, Jess McClain, Amanda Vestri, Annie Rodenfels, Rachel Smith, and Natosha Rogers. It doesn’t look like there will be a live broadcast, unfortunately.
Makayla Perez, Caroline Garrett, and Maggie Donahue have joined the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project.
Katie Rainsberger had the tumor she has been dealing with removed last week.
Courtney Frerichs is back to running at full bodyweight after having ACL reconstruction surgery.
Sadi Henderson, a 1:58 800m runner, shared that she is leaving Atlanta Track Club Elite. What’s next is TBA.
Maggie Montoya, who survived the 2021 mass shooting at King Soopers in Boulder, was among those who testified in the gunman’s trial last week. “I know I have a platform that is important to be able to discuss this trauma and share awareness,” she wrote in an Instagram story last week. “But sometimes it’s hard to have to relive it in order to educate. And I don’t want this event to be what people identify me for. But for everyone that in the past asked what they could do to help… Vote. Vote. Vote. Some people say this is just ‘our reality.’ No, this is my reality and many others’, but that does not mean we should continue to endure this as an acceptable reality that has to impact more people’s lives.”
Additional Results
Ethiopia’s Workenesh Edesa won the Sydney Marathon, running 2:21:41, the fastest time ever on Australian soil. It was an Ethiopian sweep as Ruti Aga took second (2:23:10) and Gotytom Gebreslase was third (2:24:17). Coming off of winning two medals at the Paralympics after losing her father, Madison de Rozario won the wheelchair race in 1:54:10. (Results | Race replay)
Kenya’s Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi won the Copenhagen Half Marathon in 1:05:11. (Results)
Susanna Sullivan won the Philadelphia Distance Run, covering the 13.1-mile course in 1:09:42, which is 71 seconds faster than her previous PR. Mercy Chelangat, of Kenya and NAZ Elite, finished second in 1:10:21, and Jessie Cardin of the Hansons-Brooks ODP finished third in 1:10:35, also a PR. (Results)
Thanks to an excellent preview on The Sub Hub Podcast, I felt more invested than I otherwise would have been in the Headlands 27K, which took place in the Bay Area on Saturday. The race is part of the Golden Trail World Series, and because the Tatra Skyrace was canceled mid-race due to dangerous weather, athletes now need only three races, instead of four, to qualify for the final. The change has upended the rankings, and it’s gotten more athletes invested in running the last two races, both of which are in the U.S. (Next stop: The Mammoth 26K on Sunday.) Kenya’s Joyce Muthoni Njeru won with a chip time of 2:17:34, Romania’s Monica Madalina Florea took second in 2:18:22, and Lauren Gregory was third in 2:19:15. Three other Americans also finished in the top 10: Anna Gibson (seventh, 2:25:39), Allie Ostrander (ninth, 2:27:04), and Rachel Tomajczyk (2:27:32). (Results)
Audrey Werro, 20, won the 800m in front of a home crowd at the Galà dei Castelli meet in Bellinzona, Switzerland, running a national record of 1:57.76. Addy Wiley finished second in 1:59.23. (Results)
Great Britain’s Cari Hughes won the 1500m at the Ostrava Silver Spike Meet, running 4:06.17, a personal best. Eleanor Fulton closed out her season running 4:06.86 for third, and Rachel McArthur, also in her last race of the season, ran 4:09.61 for fourth. (Results | Race replay)
Roberta Groner, 46, set an American age-group record in winning the USATF 12K Masters National Championships, held in Highlands, New Jersey. Groner ran 42:23 (42:21 chip time), which means she averaged 5:40 pace for 7.46 miles. (Results)
The Sydney Marathon also served as the World Marathon Majors Age Group World Championships this year and the following athletes won their age categories: New Zealand’s Ingrid Cree (40–44, 2:46:56), Japan’s Mai Fujisawa (45–49, 2:49:57), Uzbekistan’s Dilfuza Allayarova (50–54, 2:55:53), Australia’s Jill Wilkie (55–59, 3:00:05), New Zealand’s Sally Gibbs (60–64, 2:57:26), Gwen Jacobson (65–69, 3:20:05), Grace Wasielewski (70–74, 3:43:58), France’s Roselyne Leleu (75–79, 4:32:54), and Canada’s Elizabeth Borrett (80+, 5:52:08). (Results)
David Monti points out that Marisa Sutera Strange won the Dutchess County Classic 5K for the 30th time. The 61-year-old ran 20:20 to earn her 24th consecutive win at the event. (Results)
Podcast Highlights
Keira D’Amato was on The Drop, and one of the best parts was hearing all of the advice some of her fast friends, including Aliphine Tuliamuk, Joan Benoit Samuelson, and Sara Hall, give her behind the scenes. She said that in retrospect, she probably should have trained in Florida leading up to the Olympic Marathon Trials, because her body was not acclimated to the heat. And it was also interesting to hear how her training has changed since she moved to Utah. Among other things, she said she’s doing her highest mileage since 2021, and she’s taking one day off per week.
Nikki Hiltz was great on Exes and O’s with Shannon Beveridge. I particularly enjoyed hearing them explain the track world to someone who is a little less in it (though the host ran a 59-second 400m in high school, which is solid). And their discussion about gender identity was good, too.
Making her first podcast appearance, Savannah Berry talked about her incredible trajectory in the sport, and her third-place finish at the USATF 20K Championships, on Women’s Running Stories. Berry ran 3:15 in her first marathon, but it didn’t take her long to work her time down to a 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying time. At those Trials, she finished 233rd, and four years later, she jumped all the way to 12th place. She attributes much of her improvement to consistency in both recovery and strength training, which has allowed her to stay healthy and put in quality training.
On I’ll Have Another, Dakotah Lindwurm said she intended to return to her job as a paralegal in September, but she was feeling overwhelmed by everything she had on her plate, so she’s now a full-time runner.
Rose Harvey, who finished the Olympic marathon with a stress fracture in her femur, discussed her Paris experience on 5 Miles Easy. She said it will be about three months until she’s “back fully training.” Harvey, who is on her honeymoon, was still on crutches as of last week.
I always enjoy hearing about the training Australians Sarah Billings and Rose Davies are doing on For the Kudos, and last week, Billings talked about finally breaking 2:00 in the 800m, and skipping over the 1:59s entirely.
Alexi Pappas’ podcast, Mentor Buffet, launched last week, and her first guest was actor Rainn Wilson. I’m not sure how much I’ll be linking to this one, because I doubt there will be much running content, but it will be interesting to follow her latest pursuit.
Additional Episodes: Sage Hurta-Klecker on Lactic Acid with Dom and Laura (though Laura Thweatt is taking a break from hosting while she trains for the Chicago Marathon) | Stanford standout Roisin Willis on The Running Effect | Olympic triathlon bronze medalist Beth Potter on The Runna Podcast
This is an interesting time of year as the pro track season, high school and college cross country seasons, and the fall road racing season intersect. While this is the end of a long season for some, others are just getting going.
Thank you so much to everyone who helps keep Fast Women going with your support via Venmo and Patreon, and I hope you all have a wonderful week.
Alison
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As track season closes, I want to thank you for your continued wonderful coverage. I so look forward to your newsletter my inbox every Monday. Since I abandoned social media, you are my link to behind the scenes of the running world! (You and “Nobody Asked Me” :)