Olympic champion Religion Kipyegon needs to observe in Kipchoge’s footsteps

Ultimately weekend’s Kenyan Sports activities Awards (The SOYAs), the reigning world and Olympic 1,500m champion, Religion Kipyegon, was acknowledged alongside her idol and compatriot Eliud Kipchoge for Sports activities Persona of the 12 months. Kipyegon revealed that she needs to observe within the footsteps of the good Kipchoge, and ultimately plans on shifting as much as the marathon.

Kipyegon stated that the unparalleled success of Kenya’s marathon icon, Kipchoge, has ignited and nurtured her ambition. “As my profession evolves, I’ll proceed to look as much as Eliud as a result of he’s the best marathon runner of all time,” Kipyegon stated. “That’s one thing I hope to perform sooner or later.”I aspire to develop as an individual and an athlete like him, in addition to to develop into the best marathon runner of all time,” she added.

Kipyegon, 29, is just the second lady in historical past to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals within the girls’s 1,500m, having triumphed in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. The one different athlete to perform the feat is Tatyana Kazankina of the Soviet Union on the 1976 and 1980 Olympics.

Since 2015, Kipyegon has both gained or completed second in each main championship, and is broadly considered the best feminine middle-distance runner in historical past.

On the 2022 World Championships. Kipyegon placed on a dominant show, successful the world title in a blazing time of three:52.96. Kipyegon careworn that she isn’t completed with the 1,500m fairly but: “My purpose is to interrupt the world report, and I hope to take action in fashion.”

Final yr, she narrowly missed the world report of three:50.07 held by Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia when she ran 3:50.37 on the Monaco Diamond League. Dibaba returned to distance operating in 2022, inserting second in her marathon debut on the Amsterdam Marathon in 2:18:05.

Kipyegon has but to race on the street in her profession as a senior, which dates again to 2011.

In 2018, she gave delivery to her daughter, Alyn, and took 18 months off the game earlier than returning to win the 2019 Prefontaine Basic in her signature occasion. Months later, she positioned second on the 2019 World Championships in Doha, breaking the Kenyan report of three:54.22.

Though the 29-year-old has not revealed when she will probably be making her marathon debut, we are able to speculate that it’s going to doubtless be after the Paris 2024 Olympics, the place she will probably be vying to develop into the primary middle-distance athlete to win three straight Olympic golds.