(Reuters) -Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon set a women’s 1,500 metres world record by clocking 3:49.11 at the third Diamond League meeting of the season in Florence on Friday.
Kipyegon, winner of the last two Olympic 1,500m golds and the 2017 and 2022 world titles, bettered the previous mark of 3:50.07 set by Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba in 2015.
The Kenyan finished well ahead of Britain’s second-placed Laura Muir and Australian Jessica Hull in third, with Kipyegon’s rivals crowding around to congratulate her after the race.
“I’m so happy for Faith,” Muir said. “I would have loved to be closer to her. But for the first race of the season this is really decent. I have never gone through the first 800m as fast as today.”
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Nashik, India; Editing by Ken Ferris)
