2023 World Athletics Championships – Women's 1500 metres

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:

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:

Results

Heats

First 6 of each heat (Q) qualified to the semi-finals.

Semi-finals

First 6 of each semi-final (Q) qualified to the final.

Final

The final was started on 22 August at 21:33.

References