Faith Kipyegon comes well short of first female sub-4:00, runs 4:06.42 mile in Paris

This evening at Nike’s Breaking4 event at the Stade Charléty in Paris, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon fell well short of her aim of becoming history’s first female sub-4:00 miler, but still ended up running the fastest mile ever by a woman, 4:06.42.*

Surrounded by 13 pacers (11 men, two women), including Americans Grant Fisher, Craig Engels, and Cooper Teare, Kipyegon passed 800 meters in 2:00.75 (a mile is 1609 meters, so that’s 4:02.86 pace) but began to visibly tire on the third lap, grimacing on the back straight as the green Wavelight and lead pacers ran away from her. She hit 1200 in 3:01.84 (4:03.82 mile pace) and then faded to a 63-second final 400. 

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Kipyegon’s time was more than a second faster than her world record of 4:07.64 set in 2023, but the new time will not be ratified due to the use of male pacers. Kipyegon’s time is also ineligible because the prototype spike she raced in, the Victory Elite FK, had not been submitted for approval by World Athletics – though Nike has said it believes the spikes conform to World Athletics guidelines.

After crossing the finish line, Kipyegon collapsed to the track and lay on her back in exhaustion until her husband Timothy Kitum helped her to her feet and draped a Kenyan flag over her back. But Kipyegon was too tired to celebrate right away, spending another minute on her hands and knees on the track covered by the red, black, and green flag before taking off for a lap of honor.

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When she spoke after the race, Kipyegon maintained hope that a woman will eventually break one of the most fabled barriers in sports, even if tonight’s attempt showed that such a feat is still some distance from becoming reality.

“It’s only a matter of time, I think it will come to our way,” Kipyegon said. “If it is not me, it will be someone [else]. I know, one day, one time, a woman will run under 4:00. I will not lose hope.”

The attempt

Kipyegon’s attempt came at 8:05 p.m. local time, with the sun out but the track in shadow and a temperature of 76 degrees when the gun fired. The crowd, which consisted of a few thousand spectators, was spread out between two temporary sets of bleachers and standing room spots lining the track. The main stands of the stadium, which seats 19,000, were largely empty with fans only allowed on the turns at the ends of the straightaways.

Nike had kept the specifics of its pacing formation under wraps ahead of the race, but as the attempt began, the formation quickly became clear: a five-man diagonal “shield” up front to block any headwind, and a five-athlete “spoiler” to the side and behind Kipyegon. In this formation, Fisher would run to the right and slightly ahead of Kipyegon as her “wingman” with the two female pacers, Brits Georgia Hunter Bell and Jemma Reekie, at the back of the formation (they would step off at 800 meters). Three Kenyans, Boaz Kiprugut, Wycliffe Kinyamal, and Bernard Soi, hung at the very back, ready to step in and substitute as needed.

Kipyegon passed 400 (60.20) and 800 (2:00.75) behind sub-4:00 pace (59.65 per 400m) but close to the front of the Wavelight, which was programmed to speed up over the second half to the finish. But as the Wavelight and lead pacers increased their speed on the third lap, Kipyegon could go no faster. Teare, who had been running behind Kipyegon, slid in front of her to offer more protection as the “shield” got farther and farther away. 

By 1200 (3:01.84 after Kipyegon ran 61.09 for lap 3), it was clear sub-4:00 was not going to happen, but five pacers stuck with her until the final straightaway, at which point Fisher signalled for them to move aside and allow Kipyegon to cross the finish line alone after running her final 409m in 64.58 (63.15 400m pace).

Faith Kipyegon Finishes at Breaking 4 Event in 4:06.42 (Photo via NIKE)

Quick Take Analysis:

This was a valiant effort by Kipyegon, but the attempt confirmed what many suspected: a woman is not close to breaking 4:00 in the mile right now

When Nike announced Breaking4 back in April, the consensus among running experts was that Kipyegon might be able to shave a few seconds off her 4:07.64 world record but that getting all the way down to 3:59 would require some sort of groundbreaking new innovation similar to the boost Eliud Kipchoge received from the first Vaporfly at Breaking2 in 2017. But as we got closer and closer to race day, that looked less and less likely. Kipyegon wore a specially-designed race kit and the lightest spikes Nike has ever produced, but those were benefits aimed at trimming off fractions of a second, and Kipyegon required much more than that.

Nike’s hopes appeared to rest on its aerodynamic pacing formation – by using 13 pacers, including men who could run the entire race with her, Nike was hoping to significantly reduce Kipyegon’s energy cost. But those massive gains either never materialized in the real world or were offset by the fact that Kipyegon had to go out a lot faster than she did in her previous mile WR race if she wanted to have any hope of breaking 4:00. 

Even with improved pacing/drafting, Kipyegon’s legs still had to run the time, and that was no easy task. Kipyegon’s 800 split of 2:00.75 was 2.6% off of her 800 pb. That is the equivalent of Cole Hocker going through 800 in 1:47.87 in the midst of a mile (that’s 3:35.84 mile pace).

This event produced the fastest time ever, but we don’t need to see a sequel anytime soon

Photo via NIKE

Kipyegon did not come close to sub-4:00, but she still ran very fast, particularly when you consider how fast she went out. More than that, she was willing to subject herself to the pressure of chasing a goal many viewed as impossible. 

That cannot be underestimated. Usually when an athlete has a bad race, there are other races or athletes for the public to focus on. But Nike built this entire event around her, and it would have been a complete embarrassment if Kipyegon did not run well. That is an enormous burden to shoulder, and Kipyegon responded by running the fastest time ever by a woman. This was an admirable attempt – and Kipyegon likely could have gone faster if the splits were geared toward running her fastest possible time as opposed to sub-4:00.

That said, tonight also showed that, barring some massive technological breakthrough, we are not close to a woman breaking 4:00 in the mile. Nike spent millions creating optimal conditions for the greatest female miler of all time in her prime and the result was 4:06.42. Breaking2 was close enough to a sub-2:00 marathon that it was worth a second attempt. No sequel is necessary this time around. Let’s see a woman run 4:03 in a normal race first and perhaps we can revisit it.

*Are we sure Kipyegon ran 4:06.42?

When Kipyegon crossed the finish line, the on-screen clock initially stopped at 4:06.91, but commentator Paul Swangard reported a couple of minutes later that the official time had been adjusted to 4:06.42. That is odd for multiple reasons.

First of all, it could have led to a colossal screwup had Kipyegon been closer to 4:00. Could you imagine what would have happened if the clock stopped at 4:00.31 only to find out a few minutes later that the actual time was 3:59.82?

Second, it calls into question the veracity of the time. It’s not uncommon for a time to be adjusted by a few hundredths at the end of a professional race, but almost half a second is unheard of. LetsRun.com’s Robert Johnson actually went back and hand-timed the race with a stopwatch and both times got 4:06.68. And hand times are faster than FAT times. When you add in the standard .24 adjustment to convert hand-timing to FAT, that gives 4:06.92 – just .01 off the time that initially flashed on the screen after the race.

Additionally, take a look at this screenshot of the finish. The clock is at 4:06.8 before Kipyegon crosses the finish line:

We’ve reached out to Nike for comment and for an explanation about why the initial time was adjusted down and will update this article if we hear back.

We recorded a live video show reacting to Faith’s run as it happened. To get it as a podcast, join our Supporter’s Club. Talk about Faith’s run on the world-famous LetsRun fan forum at letsrun.com/forum:

Talk about the race on our world-famous fan forum / messageboard:

• MB: Faith Kipyegon breaking-4 official discussion thread
•  MB: I’ve timed it twice – I’m pretty sure Faith Kipyegon didn’t run a 4:06.42 mile today in Paris. What was here real time?
• MB: What did Nike actually spend on the sub 4 mile attempt? The numbers we are hearing may shock you.
• MB: Nike claims that in a pre-race test, another Nike pro ran 3% faster in mile with pacers and speedsuit. So what happened?
• MB: This Faith Kipyegon thing illustrates something that really bothers me with how women are marketed to/treated in general
• MB: Whoever came up with the idea of Faith Kipyegon breaking 4min should be fired
• MB: Faith Kipyegon Not Even Close to Sub 4

Results

Faith Kiyegon 4:06.42*
Splits: 400m 60.20, 800m 2:00.75 (60.55) , 1200m 3:01.84 (61.09), 1600m estimate 4:04.92 (63.08) Mile 4:06.42
400 splits: 60.20, 60.55, 61.09, 63.08 for each 400m
200m splits: 200m 30.07, 400m 30.13, 600m 30.10, 800m 30.45, 1000m 29.93, 1200m 31.16, 1400m 31.01, 1600m 32.07 (estimate)
Wavelight set at: 400m 60.4, 800m 60.2 (2:00.6), 1200m 59.6 (3:00.2), 1600m 58.4 (3:58.6) (they didn’t put up the final goal time, but you’d need to be 3:58.6 to get the record).

Full Race Replay (cued to start at beginning of race)

LetsRun.com Reaction Show