Kenya's Kipyegon continues 'great season,' wins 1,500M title - ESPN

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Kenya's Faith Kipyegon pushed the pace early and pulled away down the stretch to defend her 1,500-meter title at the world championships on Tuesday night.

The 29-year-old Kipyegon only grew stronger as the race went along, finishing in a time of 3 minutes, 54.87 seconds to beat Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia by almost a second. Sifan Hassan, running from back in the pack for a chunk of the race, surged into third place.

Whether it's winning races or setting records, Kipyegon has been in quite a zone this summer. Over a 50-day span, she set world marks in the 1,500 meters, 5,000 and the mile.

In Budapest, it was all about medals for Kipyegon, not breaking records.

«This is a great season for me,» Kipyegon said. «I told myself, 'You are the strongest and just keep going.'»

No time for rest, though. Kipyegon will be back on the track Wednesday evening for the start of the 5,000 meters. She got a bit of a longer break than expected with officials moving the event to the night session due to excessive heat forecast for Wednesday morning.

The Dutch runner Hassan will be in the field, too, and running her third event at worlds. Hassan earned a medal Tuesday after a fall over the weekend cost her one. Hassan tumbled about 25 or so meters from the finish line in the 10,000 meters.

Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali rose to the occasion once again at a big meet in defending his steeplechase world title. For Lamecha Girma, the world record holder in steeplechase, another silver medal. He's finished runner-up three times at worlds and at the Tokyo Games to El Bakkali.

Laulauga Tausaga and Valarie Allman finished 1-2 for the Americans in the discus. Tausaga used the biggest throw of her career — a four-meter improvement