The women's 1500 metres at the 2023 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest from 19 to 22 August 2023.
Summary
Since 2015 when she lost to the world record holder Genzebe Dibaba, the only time Faith Kipyegon has lost a World title race was 2019, when Sifan Hassan ran away from the field. Both Hassan and Kipyegon were back, but Kipyegon was now the world record holder, and not only in the 1500 m; she had also taken down Hassan's mile record and the 5000 m record as well, all this year.
This year, Hassan dropped to the back as usual, but Kipyegon went right to the front, sub-31 for the first 200m. Taking her cue, Ciara Mageean, Diribe Welteji and Nelly Chepchirchir rushed to the front, later joined by Laura Muir. The pace relaxed to a more realistic 65 by the end of the first lap, and 66 for the second. It wasn't until 500 to go that Hassan made any serious effort to move forward. Ten metres before the bell, Kipyegon began to accelerate, starting to put a slight gap on the next pursuer Welteji. Hassan started the last lap 5 metres down, passing Jessica Hull into 6th place, with the fastest women in the world sprinting ahead of her. She moved into lane 2 and started passing in the turn. With 200 to go, Hassan got by Mageean into third place, but Kipyegon still had the 5-metre gap. Through the final turn, Hassan managed to get to Welteji's shoulder, but having spent so much effort to get there, she would get no further. Kipyegon still had her gap, now over both of them, which would prove to be insurmountable all the way to the finish. Hassan couldn't find another gear to overtake Welteji for silver.
Records Before the competition records were as follows:
RecordAthlete & LocationDate World record3:49.11Firenze, Italy2 June 2023Championship record3:51.95Doha, Qatar5 October 2019World Leading3:49.11Firenze, Italy2 June 2023African RecordAsian Record3:50.46Beijing, China11 September 1993North, Central American and Caribbean record3:54.99Doha, Qatar5 October 2019South American Record4:05.67Tokyo, Japan31 August 1991European Record3:51.95Doha, Qatar5 October 2019Oceanian record3:57.27Chorzów, Poland16 July 2023
Qualification standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 4:03.50.
Schedule The event schedule, in local time (UTC +2), was as follows:
Date Time Round19 August 13:15 Heats20 August 17:05 Semi-finals22 August 21:30 Final
Results
Heats
First 6 of each heat (Q) qualified to the semi-finals.
Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 3 Nelly Chepchirchir 4:00.87 Q 2 3 Sinclaire Johnson 4:01.09 Q, 3 3 Birke Haylom 4:01.12 Q 4 3 Katie Snowden 4:01.15 Q 5 3 Marta Pérez 4:01.41 Q, 6 3 Linden Hall 4:01.45 Q 7 3 Sintayehu Vissa 4:01.66 8 3 Sophie O'Sullivan 4:02.15 9 2 Faith Kipyegon 4:02.62 Q 10 2 Diribe Welteji 4:02.72 Q 11 1 Sifan Hassan 4:02.92 Q 12 2 Sarah Healy 4:03.00 Q 13 2 Gaia Sabbatini 4:03.04 Q 14 2 Melissa Courtney-Bryant 4:03.14 Q 15 4 Hirut Meshesha 4:03.47 Q 16 1 Laura Muir 4:03.50 Q 17 4 Jessica Hull 4:03.50 Q 18 4 Ciara Mageean 4:03.52 Q 19 4 Cory McGee 4:03.61 Q 20 4 Adelle Tracey 4:03.67 Q 21 1 Nikki Hiltz 4:03.76 Q 22 4 Ludovica Cavalli 4:03.81 Q 23 1 Edinah Jebitok 4:04.09 Q 24 1 Abbey Caldwell 4:04.16 Q 25 2 Esther Guerrero 4:04.33 Q 26 1 Nozomi Tanaka 4:04.36 Q, 27 4 Purity Chepkirui 4:04.51 28 1 Lucia Stafford 4:05.21 29 2 Sofia Thøgersen 4:05.34 30 1 4:06.03 31 2 Agathe Guillemot 4:06.18 32 2 Aleksandra Płocińska 4:06.39 33 4 Águeda Marqués 4:06.41 34 2 Hanna Hermansson 4:06.42 35 1 Sofia Ennaoui 4:06.47 36 2 Salomé Afonso 4:06.55 37 3 Kristiina Mäki 4:06.90 38 1 Nathalie Blomqvist 4:06.93 39 3 Simone Plourde 4:07.04 40 4 Kate Current 4:07.23 41 4 Marta Pen 4:07.74 42 4 Amalie Sæten 4:08.08 43 3 Eliza Megger 4:09.22 44 1 Vera Hoffmann 4:09.76 45 3 Yume Goto 4:10.22 46 4 Winnie Nanyondo 4:10.55 47 2 4:11.02 48 2 Lili Anna Vindics-Tóth 4:11.08 = 49 2 Elise Vanderelst 4:11.55 50 3 Nguyễn Thị Oanh 4:12.28 51 1 Jaqueline Weber 4:14.46 52 3 Joceline Wind 4:14.86 53 1 Şilan Ayyıldız 4:14.96 54 4 Fedra Luna 4:19.00 1 Claudia Mihaela Bobocea 4:06.07 4 Gresa Bakraçi
Semi-finals First 6 of each semi-final (Q) qualified to the final.
Rank Heat Name Nationality Time Notes 1 2 Faith Kipyegon 3:55.14 Q 2 2 Diribe Welteji 3:55.18 Q 3 2 Sifan Hassan 3:55.48 Q 4 2 Laura Muir 3:56.36 Q 5 2 Katie Snowden 3:56.72 Q 6 2 Jessica Hull 3:57.85 Q 7 2 Adelle Tracey 3:58.77 8 2 Sarah Healy 3:59.68 9 2 Abbey Caldwell 3:59.79 10 2 Esther Guerrero 4:00.13 11 2 Nikki Hiltz 4:00.84 12 1 Nelly Chepchirchir 4:02.14 Q 13 1 Birke Haylom 4:02.46 Q 14 1 Ciara Mageean 4:02.70 Q 15 1 Cory McGee 4:02.71 Q 16 1 Melissa Courtney-Bryant 4:02.79 Q 17 1 Ludovica Cavalli 4:02.83 Q 18 1 Marta Pérez 4:02.96 19 1 Linden Hall 4:03.96 20 1 Hirut Meshesha 4:04.27 21 1 Edinah Jebitok 4:05.41 22 1 Sinclaire Johnson 4:06.39 23 1 Nozomi Tanaka 4:06.71 2 Gaia Sabbatini
Final The final was started on 22 August at 21:33.
Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Faith Kipyegon 3:54.87 Diribe Welteji 3:55.69 Sifan Hassan 3:56.00 4 Ciara Mageean 3:56.61 5 Nelly Chepchirchir 3:57.90 6 Laura Muir 3:58.58 7 Jessica Hull 3:59.54 8 Katie Snowden 3:59.65 9 Birke Haylom 4:01.51 10 Cory McGee 4:01.60 11 Ludovica Cavalli 4:01.84 12 Melissa Courtney-Bryant 4:03.31
References