Few hours to GO! Kipyegon carries Kenya's gold medal hopes ahead of 5.50am 1500m final

Faith Kipyegon, the 1500m Olympic Champion accompanied by her daughter Alyn during The Kip Keino Classic-World Athletics Continental Tour 2021 Media Interviews at Ole Sereni Hotel in Nairobi on September17, 2021. [Stafford Ondego, Standard]

All eyes will be on Faith Kipyegon Tuesday from 5.50am (East African Time) when the double Olympic champion takes on the field to try and end Kenya’s gold medal drought at the ongoing 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, United States.

Kipyegon sailed through to the finals after taking the second semifinal heat in 4:03.98 on Sunday morning.

The Tokyo Olympic champion who will be aiming to reclaim her World title which she lost to Dutch Sifan Hassan during the 2019 Doha World Championships will take on World Indoor champion Gudaf Tsegay from Ethiopia.

 Tsegay won her heat in 4:01.28 to set up a thrilling encounter with Kipyegon in the final.

The Ethiopian star aims to become the only other Ethiopian to win the world title after world record holder Genzebe Dibaba, who won in 2015 Beijing.

Kipyegon, who won the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics titles, goes into the final not only as the fastest with a personal best of 3:51.07, but also the world leader (3:52.59).

Victory in Oregon will make it a fourth global outdoor championships gold.

Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Laura Muir from Britain and Australia Jessica Hull are also in strong contention alongside the 2019 World 800m champion Winnie Nanyondo from Uganda.