Latest news with #mile
ABC News
6 hours ago
- Sport
- ABC News
Faith Kipyegon falls short in bid for first sub-four-minute mile
Kenya's Faith Kipyegon has fallen short in her attempt to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes. Kipyegon clocked 4:06.42 in a Nike "Breaking4" project, a time quicker than her 2023 world record (4:07.64). But her effort, run at Stade Charléty in Paris, will not be ratified, given the circumstances in which the record attempt was held. The three-time Olympic gold medallist was assisted by innovative kit, super-spikes and a group of mostly male pacers, who blocked the wind on the track where she set her 1,500m world record last year. Dressed in a black one-pieced suit with arm warmers, the diminutive Kenyan was swamped by her group of pacers, who were all world-class athletes themselves. In a pre-designed plan, a group of five men ran in a line in front of her as "the shield", with American double Olympic bronze medallist Grant Fisher on her shoulder. She was about on course at halfway but began to slip behind the coloured pacing lights inside the track and drifted on the final lap as she tied up over the last 200m. Those male pacers meant — just as with compatriot Eliud Kipchoge's sub-two-hour marathon run with "in and out" pacers in 2019 — the new mark will not be recognised as a world record. Kipyegon, however, was her usual upbeat self at the finish. "I'm tired but I feel good and I tried," said Kipyegon, as she thanked the crowd of around 1,000 spectators who had given her enthusiastic support. "That is why I was coming here — to try to be the first woman to run under four minutes. "It's only a matter of time but I think it will come our way. If it's not me, it will be someone else. "I know one day, one time, a woman will run under four. I will not lose hope. "I will still go for it and if there's not something like this, a special one, I think in a normal Diamond League (meet), or anything, I will still go for it and I hope I will get it one day." Great Britain's Roger Bannister was the first man to run the mile under four minutes in1954. Compatriot Diane Leather was the first woman to break five minutes in the same year. The current men's world record is 3:43.13, set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999. Reuters
Washington Post
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Faith Kipyegon falls short in bid to run sub-4-minute mile
When Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon crossed the finish line after four laps at the Stade Charléty in Paris, she had trimmed more than a full second off her world record mile time, though she came several seconds short in her hunt to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes. She ran it in 4 minutes 6.42 seconds at the closed-course event Thursday, besting the previous world record, which she set two years ago.
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Faith not enough as Kipyegon misses four-minute mile barrier by six seconds
Faith Kipyegon's dream of following in Sir Roger Bannister's long footsteps by becoming the first woman to shatter the four-minute barrier for the mile ended with her body soaked in lactic acid and defiance. And, crucially, with the stadium clock at Stade Charléty more than six seconds away from where she had hoped it would be. The 31-year-old Kenyan arrived in Paris stacked with the latest weapons in track and field's technological arms race. But having reached the bell in 3mins 1sec, just about on schedule, she found that physiology began to overpower technology. There was a consolation of sorts as she finished in 4:06.42 – 1.22 faster than her world record. The new time will not count as she was being paced by men, which is against World Athletics rules. 'This was the first trial,' she said. 'We are learning many lessons from this race. I will go back to the drawing board to get it right. And I think there is more in the tank.' Before the race Kipyegon's 13 pacemakers were introduced to the crowd – 11 men and two women. They included several Olympians, the indoor 5,000m world record-holder in the American Grant Fisher, and three Britons, Elliot Giles, Georgia Hunter Bell and Jemma Reekie. Then it was Kipyegon's turn, tiny at 5ft 2in, dressed all in black. There was a wave to the crowd, a short sprint to whirr the legs up to full speed. Then they were off, ready to tackle the 1,609 metres in front of them. It was Giles who led the way, but to the untrained eye it looked as if he went off a little too fast as it took a while to settle into formation: six athletes in a line in front of Kipyegon, one alongside her, and six behind her. The idea was to allow her to draft and reduce wind resistance. For a while, her supporters in the Stade Charléty dared to dream. Kipyegon went through the first lap in 1:00.20 and hit 800m in 2:00.75. She still looked to be going strong as she heard the bell in 3:01.84, but then the pain and lactic began to rip through her, and she could run the last lap only in a shade under 65 seconds. The trackside wave lights, which she had used in many of her world records, had been set to get her across the finish line in 3:59.99. This time, though, they kept running further away from her. 'I gave everything,' she said. 'But I think the wave lights gave everything today too. But maybe next time I can catch up with them.' Few outside Kipyegon's camp had expected her to emulate Bannister's epic 1954 feat. But Nike's executives insisted privately that there was cause for optimism that she could get close. Part of that came from Kipyegon being armed with the latest super shoes, which were lighter at 90g and more propulsive than her previous spikes. On the insoles were written two words: 'fastest known'. The Kenyan was also wearing a special skinsuit, designed to help her be more aerodynamic. And she had the team of pacers to help her cut through the air quicker. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion For months an elaborate pacing and drafting strategy was practised in Nike's headquarters in Oregon and, more recently, in Paris with Britain's Hunter Bell acting as Kipyegon. In tests, one Nike athlete had been able to run a mile 3% quicker using such strategy, compared with a test run using normal equipment and with no pacers a fortnight earlier. That gave executives confidence that Kipyegon could go close. Beforehand they walked around with 'I've got Faith' T-shirts, with the company's logo replacing the apostrophe. But faith, it turned out, was not enough. So where does that leave us? The detractors will say it was marketing hype from the beginning. But that isn't fair. This was a genuine attempt to go where no women had gone before, and Kipyegon should be lauded for rolling the dice and giving it a shot. At the press conference, she was lauded by one influencer for shifting the narrative. But her face showed that she had wanted more. 'It was not easy but I wanted to prove to the world that everything is possible in life if you dare to try. I am hoping one day, one time, it will come my way.' You could only admire her resolve. But finding those seven seconds will not be easy.
Washington Post
9 hours ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
Breaking barriers: A timeline of men's and women's mile records
PARIS — Despite not being on the Olympic program, where races follow metric measurements, the mile holds certain prestige in the world of middle-distance running. Faith Kipyegon fell short of further cementing her place in mile-running history when she failed to become the first woman to run the distance in under 4 minutes in a Nike-sponsored event in Paris on Thursday.
Telegraph
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Telegraph
Faith Kipyegon fails to become first woman to break four-minute mile
An unofficial world record, just, but immortality of the sort bestowed on Roger Bannister can wait. Exactly 71 years after Bannister became the first man to run a mile under four minutes, the Kenyan great Faith Kipyegon has failed in an audacious attempt to become the first woman to emulate that feat. Despite a 13-strong team of pacemakers, which included the British athletes Georgia Hunter-Bell, Jemma Reekie and Elliott Giles, Kipyegon faded notably over the final lap of her attempt to finish in 4min 6.42sec. That was still more than some 1.22sec faster than her official women's world record but well short of an audacious target that poses a major question: If Kipyegon, perhaps the greatest female middle-distance runner cannot do it even with the might of Nike's multi-million innovation department behind her, could any woman? In fairness, the odds were always stacked against her. She would have needed to take almost eight seconds off a world record that was itself five seconds better than anyone had managed before. And, in the breeze of the Stade Stade Charléty in Paris, reality struck and the difference did indeed prove insurmountable. She had begun well enough. An opening 400m of 60.20sec was pretty much exactly what she wanted and, while she did broadly hang onto that pace to reach 1,000m in 2min 30.68sec, the sight of her steadily dropping into the group of slower pacemakers told its own story. Some may primarily see this as a giant advert for Nike and, while that part of the equation was undoubtedly fulfilled, there was much that could be taken from an occasion attended by much of the great and good of athletics, including Carl Lewis, Keely Hodgkinson and Eliud Kipchoge. Hodgkinson said that it would 'inspire' people from all over the world and, for a sport trying desperately to remain visible to a younger generation of sports fans, it was an occasion that would certainly have appealed beyond a core audience. Kipyegon's run was also mightily impressive by any normal parameters. It was a regulation track with bespoke spikes and clothing which conformed to World Athletics rules. The use of male pace-makers was the one element that prevented this being official. Like Kipchoge, who failed with his first attempt at a sub two hour marathon with pacemakers, it may also serve as a catalyst for further attempts. A paper written by a group of sports scientists who had been working with Kipyegon, largely from the University of Exeter, urged caution in a paper published last month. 'With additional specialisation in middle-distance running events, further under-standing of the physiological underpinnings of successful middle-distance running performances, and optimisation of the physiology and training of the current world's best 1,500 mrunners, we contend that a woman may break the 4-min mile barrier within the next decade,' they wrote. On this evidence, that remains optimistic.
