Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon cemented her legacy as one of the greatest middle-distance runners of all time after storming to a record-equalling fourth world 1500m title at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The 31-year-old, who is also the reigning world record holder, controlled the final from the gun and pulled away with trademark ease on the last lap, clocking 3:52.15 to claim her eighth global gold medal.
Kipyegon now joins retired Moroccan legend Hicham El Guerrouj as the only athlete in history to win four world titles in the 1500m. Her victory also extended her unbeaten run in global finals over the distance to five, spanning both Olympic and World Championship competitions.
Kenya secured a one-two finish, with Dorcus Ewoi taking silver nearly three seconds behind, while Australia’s Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull settled for bronze.
Kipyegon’s achievement places her alongside Jamaican sprint icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Ethiopian great Tirunesh Dibaba as the only women to win four world titles in the same event.
Her dominance has spanned more than four years without defeat in a 1500m race outside preliminary heats, and she remains the only woman in history to have completed the 1500m-5,000m double at a World Championships — a feat she will attempt to repeat this week in Tokyo.
Earlier this year, Kipyegon lowered her own 1500m world record to 3:48.68, narrowly missed the 1000m world record, and came within a second of the long-standing 3,000m mark.
The oldest woman ever to win a world 1500m title, Kipyegon continues to redefine the limits of distance running.
