Kipyegon hopes to rewrite history at Eugene Diamond League

Faith Kipyegon reacts after winning the Women's 1500m and sets a new world record during the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field on July 5, 2025. [AFP]

Kenyan stars will be hoping to deliver historic performances when they blaze the tracks in the Eugene Diamond League contest from early on Saturday.

In last year’s meet, three-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon and double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet produced phenomenal victories.

Kipyegon lowered her own 1500m world record to 3:48.68 as Chebet demolished Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay’s 5000m record, setting it at 13:58.06.

Those extraordinary performances at the Prefontaine Classic show were a springboard to world titles in Tokyo for the two sensational Kenyan women.

However, Kipyegon will be looking to re-enter the history books when she competes in the Mile, an event where she also holds the 4:07.64 world record from the 2023 Monaco Diamond League meeting.

At the Hayward Field on Saturday night, Kipyegon is touted to either smash the mile meeting record of 4:21.25 set at the 1988 Prefontaine Classic meet by Mary Decker or her own world record. Either way, history will have been written.

She takes to the start line with four Olympic medals, among them three consecutive titles in the 1500m from 2016 Rio, 2020 Tokyo, and 2024 Paris as well as a silver medal in Paris in the 5000m.

The record assassin also has a decorated CV, five World Championship titles, and a historic 29 career Diamond League victories across six distances.

Additionally, Kipyegon has remained unbeaten for a decade at the Prefontaine Classic, with three of her all-time top ten performances in the 1500m having been run at Hayward Field.

She will have the company of compatriot, world silver medallist Dorcus Ewoi who tracked her to a second place at the Tokyo World Championships last September in a mile race that has Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia, US Olympian Nikki Hiltz, Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull (Australia) and Birke Haylom (Ethiopia) among other stars.

Olympic champion Faith Cherotich is taking on her fiercest competitors this season, Olympic gold medallists Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai and Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi.

Chemeutai has already chalked up two Diamond League victories this season, in Shanghai and Xiamen, both in May.

Cherotich, on the other hand, is battling to reclaim the top spot after second and third place finishes in the Shanghai and Xiamen meets, respectively. Yavi was second in Xiamen.

“My preparation was not so good, to be honest, due to some injuries, but now I come back very strong. I had no speed today, so I will be focused on my speed, especially for the last part of the race," she said after her second place in Shanghai.

After a stunning victory in Oslo, 2019 1500m world champion Timothy Cheruiyot is featured alongside world bronze medallist Reynold Cheruiyot in the Bowerman’s mile in the Eugene meet

“I have been testing my endurance over longer distances. My main target is the Diamond League this year, to reach the final and win. Also the Commonwealth Games so I go home for the trials next week. I train in the Netherlands now so I am ok with this weather tonight. Jakob (Ingebrigtsen) is a hard-working guy, and he will be back and be a big challenge to me,” Timothy Cheruiyot said after his victory in Oslo.

For the first time since 2022, the Prefontaine Classic will feature a women's Two Mile race.

Margaret Akidor, the winner of the 5000m at the 2024 Monaco Diamond League meeting, is facing stars including Marta Alemayo (Ethiopia), who is a two-time World Under-20 Cross Country champion, and her compatriot Aleshign Baweke – a gold medallist in the 3000m at the 2024 World Under-20 Championships in Lima.