BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon padded her remarkable winning streak over 1,500 metres with her fifth Diamond League season title at the series finale, while compatriot Beatrice Chebet nearly crashed into a photographer en route to her 5,000 victory on Saturday.
The 30-year-old Kipyegon, who has not lost over the distance since 2021, took the lead just before the final lap and then held off a challenge from Diribe Welteji to cross the line in three minutes 54.75 seconds. Welteji clocked 3:55.25.
Kipyegon, the world record holder and three-times reigning Olympic champion in the 1,500, smiled and held up five fingers after securing the win.
“My goal was to finish my Diamond League season in a good way and I did,” she said. “It was a good race, but definitely not an easy one.”
Chebet, who won Olympic gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 in Paris this year, cruised home in a time of 14:09.82, her stiffest challenger being the photographer who stepped into lane one on the Kenyan’s penultimate lap.
“It’s not easy to do even better the next years, but you have to train hard, to have faith in yourself and stay focused,” Chebet said. “Now I am going back to my country, celebrate with my family and take some holidays.”
The winners in 16 disciplines earned a Diamond League trophy and $30,000. Another 16 were crowned in events on Friday.
American Kenny Bednarek beat Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana to win the men’s 200 on Saturday in 19.67 seconds. Tebogo, who became the first African to win the Olympic 200 title in Paris, trailed home in 19.80.
“This year I shocked a few people with how fast I was running,” Bednarek said. “This season people saw a glimpse of what I can do. Next year I will even be faster and more dangerous.”
WANYONYI WINS
Kenya’s Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi powered past Djamel Sedjati of Algeria and Canada’s Marco Arop over the final 50m to win the men’s 800.
The 20-year-old Wanyonyi, who missed the world record by 0.2 three weeks ago in Lausanne, did just enough to win on Saturday with a relatively slow 1:42.70.
“The last metres were very hard, they always are,” Wanyonyi said. “But I worked hard for it and I’m happy that I made it.”
Italy’s Leonard Fabbri handed triple Olympic champion Ryan Crouser of the U.S. a rare defeat in the men’s shot put, with 22.98 metres on his first throw. Crouser, the world record holder, was second with 22.79.
“It was a very solid performance, I just had not that big throw in me like the one Leonardo Fabbri had,” Crouser said. “He threw a lifetime best. The level in the shot put was never this high, it definitely pushes me to throw better.”
Faith Cherotich of Kenya held off Olympic and world champion Winfred Yavi of Bahrain to win the women’s 3,000 steeplechase by half a second. Yavi was 0.07 shy of a world record in Rome two weeks ago but chilly Brussels conditions made for slower times.
Other winners included Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi, who followed up her Olympic javelin gold medal with victory on her final throw, and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos and Femke Bol of the Netherlands, who won men’s and women’s 400 hurdles respectively.
American Brittany Brown raced to victory in the women’s 200 while Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico capped her perfect Diamond League season by winning the women’s 100 hurdles.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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