PARIS — Three-time Olympic champion Religion Kipyegon has failed in her bid to change into the primary girl to run a mile in underneath 4 minutes.
Kipyegon, the Olympic 1,500-meter gold medalist from Kenya, ran in 4 minutes, 06.42 seconds at Stade Charléty in Paris on Thursday.
Her time was higher than her world document of 4:07.64 however will not be acknowledged by the worldwide federation as a result of the Nike-sponsored occasion dubbed “Breaking4: Religion Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile” was unofficial.
Kipyegon, 31, appeared exhausted as she reached the end and fell on her again as she was surrounded by photographers.
Her try befell on a balmy summer time’s night with a temperature of 25°C and restricted wind, in entrance of an viewers of some thousand individuals.
She used a workforce of 13 elite pacesetters made up of 11 males and two ladies who had been positioned in entrance and behind her to cut back drag.
However Kipyegon appeared to wrestle halfway by way of the race and failed in her try to shave at the very least 7.65 seconds off her world document. To realize the feat, Kipyegon would have wanted to run every of her 4 laps a mean of about two seconds quicker.
Among the many visitors in Paris had been Carl Lewis and Kipyegon’s fellow Kenyan runner, longtime good friend and coaching accomplice Eliud Kipchoge.
Kipyegon set the ladies’s mile world document practically two years in the past throughout a Diamond League meet in Monaco.
She received her third straight 1,500 Olympic title in Paris final August. A month earlier than that, she broke her personal 1,500 document on the identical observe the place she ran on Thursday.