1500 Final Set: Kipyegon Favorite, But Americans Hiltz & St. Pierre Ready to Challenge for Medals

PARIS — There was no question who was the class of the field in the first Olympic women’s 1500m semifinal on Thursday: two-time defending Olympic champ Faith Kipyegon, who won in 3:58.64. The Kenyan star stayed tucked in and out of trouble until she reached the backstretch of the final lap, where she eased past Laura Muir and led a breakaway group of four that included Georgia Bell, Elle St. Pierre, and Muir into the final and under 4 minutes. Joining the first four in the final will be Klaudia Kazimerska of Poland and the University of Oregon and Agueda Marques of Spain, who dove past her countrywoman for the final qualifying spot. Birke Haylom of Ethiopia, who ran one of the fastest 800-meter splits in history during her repechage race yesterday, finished well back in 10th. 

The second heat was all gas as Gudaf Tsegay dragged the field out at suicide pace, splitting 62 seconds the first lap and stringing the entire field out. The pace would continue to be honest the next couple laps, running 63.7 and 64.7. 

But the 5000 WR holder Tsegay, who struggled in the 5000 a few days ago, did not look great on the last lap as she ended up fourth in 3:56.41. The star and winner of the heat was 2023 world silver medallist Diribe Welteji, who won it in 3:55.10, ahead of 2024 world #2 Jess Hull (3:55.40). The times behind the top two were fast as American Nikki Hiltz rna 3:56.17 for 3rd and it took a French record of 3:56.69 by Agathe Guillemot to take the final qualifying spot. The first two people out of the finals did get nice consolation prizes howeer as Weronika Lizakowska (Poland, 3:57.31) and Spain’s Marta Perez (3:57.75) ran national records, as did 10th placer Sinta Vissa of Italy (3:58.11). Everyone in the heat save for last placer Emily Mackay (4:02.03) of the US broke 4:00.

*Results

If anyone beats Faith Kipyegon, we think it’s going to be Diribe Welteji

The runners in heat #1. Kevin Morris photo.

If you are looking for the “Cole Hocker” of the women’s 1500, we think it’s 22-year-old Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia. If anyone is to beat the heavy favorite Kipyegon, many will be focusing on Jessica Hull of Australia, who has run 3:50.89 this year (Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay has also run 3;50 in 2024 but has looked poor in Paris so far) but we like Welteji.

Consider this. Last year, Welteji won Worlds silver and beat Kipyegon to win the road mile world champs. She comes into Paris on a two-race win streak, having won the USATF LA Grand Prix as Prefontaine. At Prefontaine, she destroyed Hull by 2.22 seconds, running 3:53.75. And she has great speed, having run 1:59 as a 16-year-old and 1:57.02 at age 20.

Considering that we knew that Yared Nuguse ran close to Jakob Ingebrigtsen on his best day last year, the fact that Cole Hocker beat Nuguse at USAs this year was significant. We think the same thing is true is here. Jessica Hull ran close to Faith Kipyegon when Kipyegon set her world record, finishing just 1.79 in arrears. Well Welteji beat Hull by 2.22 at Pre. By the transitive property, it’s not out of this world to think Welteji has a shot.

St. Pierre ready to test her limits in Olympic final

Elle St. Pierre made the last Olympic final in Tokyo, but finished 10th in that race while nursing a foot injury. She didn’t make it out of the semis at the 2022 Worlds (she was about a month pregnant at the time), then missed the 2023 season after giving birth that March.

Now St. Pierre is back and stronger than ever. She said she is ready to fight for a medal and expects a low-3:50s race. She already felt she was ready for that based on her training but said it gave her confidence to see Jessica Hull, a woman St. Pierre has battled all year (and beat at Millrose and World Indoors), run 3:50 in Paris last month.

“She is somebody that I know I can run with,” St. Pierre said. “This whole year, we’ve just been running side by side. I doubled at the Olympic Trials and still ran 3:55 on tired legs, so I have optimism going into the final.”

Hiltz, like St. Pierre, was also optimistic about their medal chances.

“I want a medal,” Hiltz said. “I really do. Why not me? Maybe 3:53, 3:54, around there is probably what shape I’m in. But you never know what good competition will bring out of you.”

Emily Mackay felt the exhaustion of a long season caught up to her today

Running in her first global outdoor championship, Mackay was never really in the race and finished 13th and last in the second semi in 4:02.03. She was disappointed given her goal coming in was to make the final, but knew something was amiss when she felt flat on the warmup. Mackay said sometimes that feeling goes away, but it carried over to the race tonight, where she was the only woman in her semi not to break 4:00.

Overall, Mackay has enjoyed a tremendous season, earning World Indoor bronze, making her first Olympic team, and lowering her pb from 3:59 to 3:55, but she thought that the intensity and exhaustion of the year caught up to her today.

“I poured so much mentally and physically even getting to this point, and it definitely took a toll on me, as much as I tried to reframe the Trials as being something that was going to prepare me for this experience, with it being three rounds,” Mackay said.

Laura Muir makes her eighth straight global final

Two women have made every global 1500 final since 2015: Faith Kipyegon and Laura Muir. While Kipyegon, obviously, has the stronger resume, Muir has been very consistent as well, only finishing out of the top six once in that span and bringing home two medals. Muir is coming off a personal best of 3:53.79 from the Paris Diamond League on July 7 and thinks we could see a final even faster than that on Saturday night.

“It’s going to be pretty quick,” Muir said. “I mean I’ve had two sub-4:00s back to back already [in the prelims and semis]. It’s kind of crazy. But I know I can run faster than what I did in Paris [Diamond League], which is exciting.”

Oregon/Poland’s Klaudia Kazimierska is into the final after yet another PB

After Klaudia Kazimierska ran a 4:06.92 pb in the semis of NCAAs and then placed third in the final, she feared her season might be over as there was a possibility she had a stress fracture. Far from it. After a week of no workouts, Kazimierska has been better than ever. She ran 4:01.89 on June 20 to book her ticket to Paris, she then won the Polish champs on June 27 and now is into the Olympic final after running another pb of 4:00.21 today. To do it, she beat New Zealand’s Maia Ramsden — who destroyed Kazimierska at NCAAs two months ago — by nearly two seconds. And Ramsden herself ran a pb today.

“It‘s insane. Like, I basically was about to finish my season in June after NCAA, so now I’m here making Olympic finals. So I’m so happy with that. And yeah, I’m not done yet, so I hope to show up here in two days and run my personal best again,” said 22-year-old Kazimierska.

How did Kazimierska explain the huge improvement?

“No school. It’s much easier without having classes, exams, and after NCAAs, I basically finally tapered, like it was very long and hard training (during the NCAA season) because we really wanted to qualify for Olympics. So with (Oregon coach) Shalane (Flanagan), we like, approached the season, like, we’re staying in the [hard] training for, so long, as long as possible, and then we go on taper for July, June, like, just for the most important races. So the improvement, I think, is just coming from training like [with a] smart approach, just just to finally recover and taper without having any distractions like school.

“You know, living as a student is really hard, and now I’m in Europe. I was at home having my family, parents, and my friends around, it helps so much.”

Maia Ramsden is proud of her effort 

Maia Ramsden just missed out on the Olympic final as she moved into the final auto qualfiying spot about 10 meters before the finish but was then pipped by two Spanish athletes in the final strides — a reverse of what happened in the first round when she advanced by passing someone at the line.

“Oh, I’m a little heartbroken, but that’s the end of it,” said the Harvard grad, who wants to keep racing to try to break 4:00 after running a 4:02.20 pb and begin her transition from coach Alex Gibby to Dathan Ritzenhein of the OAC. Speaking of On, Ramsden was wearing a pair of their prototype laceless spikes, which she says she loves.

Ramsden has spent little time at altitude in her career and is excited to see what she can do now that she will be based in Boulder with On Athletics but was grateful for what Gibby has done for her.

“I’ve had a great time working with Gibby, and just owe him so much. So really, super grateful for that.”

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