Kenya’s Kipyegon falls short of 3000m world record at Silesia Diamond League

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon just missed out on the long-standing world record in the women’s 3000m at the Silesia Diamond League meet on Saturday.

Six weeks after improving her own world 1500m record in Eugene, the three-time Olympic and four-time world gold medallist clocked 8:07.04 over the non-Olympic distance.

That fell just short of the 8:06.11 world record set by China’s Wang Junxia in 1993.

“It is all about Tokyo now,” Kipyegon said in reference to the September 13-21 world championships in the Japanese capital. “I am so happy. I wanted to run a longer distance. To be honest, I did not see the clock on the finish line because I was so tired. But now I am very satisfied with the time.”

Kipyegon added, “I saw the world record red line during the race but today it was very hot.

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“I am grateful for what I have done. All those records, this is what I love doing. I want to be an inspiration for young people and I love to challenge myself.

“Tokyo is a championship race, so anything can happen.”

Kipyegon, who also holds the mile world record and is a former world record-holder in the 5000m, was led around the track by two pacesetters — American Sage Hurta-Klecker and Australian Jessica Hull, the Olympic silver medallist who ran a world record 5:19.70 for 2000m in Monaco last year.

But Kipyegon had only raced the 3000m twice before and her previous personal best of 8:23.55 was set in 2014.

After Hull pulled up with two-and-a-half laps to race, all eyes were on Kipyegon, but she left herself too much to do in the final lap and fell just short of what would have been a sixth world record at a Diamond League meet in three seasons.

The Kenyan came up short in her specially arranged attempt in June to become the first woman to smash through the four-minute barrier, clocking 4:06.42 in Paris.