Faith's world record leaves rivals licking their wounds

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon reacts after winning and beating the world record in women's 1500m. [AFP]

It looks like it is just the beginning for Kenya’s golden girl, Faith Kipyegon after breaking her own 1500m World Record at the Paris Diamond League on Sunday evening.

The athletics world continues to scramble for superlatives to describe the jaw-dropping record moment produced by a fierce Kipyegon who had previously promised to transition to long distance racing after the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.

Her phenomenal cruise to a 3:49.04 World Record time came not as a big surprise for the two-time Olympic champion.

Observers feel that breaking her own record was one of Kipyegon’s clearest signals that she was getting ready for more blazing speeds on the track.

Unquestionably, the 30-year-old star has earned her place as the world’s queen of the track and a serial record assassin.

Ahead of the superb Sunday race, Kipyegon was the race favourite and a threat of the four-time world champion shattering her own World Record in 1500m loomed large.

The next stop for the village girl who ran barefoot during her school days in Keringet, Nakuru County in the 2000s is the Paris Olympic Games.

And she has a plan as she sets sights on flying Kenya’s flag in the 1500m and 5000m contests.

Kipyegon says she is buoyed by the record-breaking performance in Paris and that she was returning back to the country to write a script that will be played at the Olympics which will run from July 26 to August 11.

On Sunday, she made a return to the same arena (Paris) where she obliterated the women’s 5000m World Record last year, a mark that was later lowered by Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay.

“My next move is to go back home and work on a little bit of tactics. I don’t know what the coach will say," she said.