Beatrice Chebet (13:58.06) & Faith Kipyegon (3:48.68) Amaze With World Records at 2025 Pre Classic

In a tour de force of distance running excellence, Kenyans Beatrice Chebet and Faith Kipyegon both broke world records at the 50th edition of the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. At 1:33 p.m. Pacific Time, Chebet finished the 5,000 meters in 13:58.06, becoming the first woman in history to break 14:00 on the track; 80 minutes later, she was back on the track to embrace Kipyegon when her friend ran 3:48.68 to break the 1500-meter world record for the third year in a row. Few countries have ever had a better afternoon at the track.

We have a separate article breaking down the rest of the meet: 9 Thoughts on the 2025 Prefontaine Classic, Including Athing Mu’s Rough Return & Niels Laros’ Big Win

Chebet knew Kipyegon would be trying to break the 1500 record in the final event of the meet and said Kipyegon was one of the inspirations for her own record chase.

“I said if Faith is trying, why not me?” Chebet told meet organizers. “And today, I’m so happy because I’ve achieved being the first woman to run under 14. I’m so happy for myself.”

Kevin Morris photo

Through its first 49 editions, the Prefontaine Classic had hosted seven world records. Only two editions had featured multiple world records: 2011, in which Kenyan Moses Mosop set 25,000m and 30,000m records during the same race; and 2023, in which Mondo Duplantis set his seventh world record in the pole vault and Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay set the 5,000 world record of 14:00.21 that Chebet broke today.

But none of those meets was quite like this one, the first in more than three decades to feature world records in two separate women’s distance races. That Chebet and Kipyegon, friends, countrywomen, and occasional competitors, were the two to break the records was only fitting. Kipyegon, a three-time Olympic champion and now three-time world record holder in the 1500 meters, is unquestionably one of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of women’s distance running. Chebet may one day join her; in the past 15 months alone, Chebet has won a World Cross Country title, Olympic golds in the 5,000 and 10,000, and become the first woman ever to break 14:00 and 29:00 on the track.

Their latest records fell in stunningly similar fashion. Both women entered the final turn trailing the green Wavelight system set to world record pace. Then both shifted into a sprint, summoning a top gear that should not be possible in such a fast race, blitzing past the lights and into the record books. Each finished with an identical split for their final 200 meters: a blistering 28.8 seconds.

Kevin Morris photo

While both Chebet and Kipyegon were alone at the finish, each had company for much of the race. Tsegay and Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich stalked Chebet until the bell, Ngetich would hold on for 2nd in 14:01.29 (#3 all-time) with Tsegay 3rd in 14:04.41, more than 25 seconds ahead of third. In the 1500, Olympic silver medalist Jessica Hull was right on Kipyegon through 1200 meters — just as she had been when Kipyegon set the previous record in Paris last year — before fading to 3rd in 3:52.67. Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji ran Hull down to clock a pb of 3:51.44 for 2nd.

This was, truly, a moment to savor for the sold-out crowd on a gorgeous afternoon at Hayward Field: two of the sport’s greatest-ever talents operating at the peak of their powers, resetting the limits of their sport, and embracing afterwards in a celebration of pure joy. In 50 years’ worth of Prefontaine Classics, this may have been the meet’s finest hour.

Quick Take Analysis (Full results and race videos appear below the analysis)

Two women’s distance world records in a meet for the first time in 32 years

While both world record performances were incredible, they were not exactly unexpected. The Wavelight was set to world record pace in four distance events on Saturday (women’s 1500, women’s 5,000, men’s mile, men’s 10,000). And in between the 5000 and 1500,  there was nearly a third women’s WR from a Kenyan-born woman as Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi came less than one second shy of the world record in the women’s steeplechase as well, running 8:45.25 (WR is 8:44.32) after a final 1k of 2:49.86. Given the talent on hand — especially Kipyegon and Chebet, who have been a threat to break the WR every time they’ve stepped on the track over the last 12 months — there was a good chance at least one WR was going to fall on Saturday. Chebet, in fact, had broken the 10,000m world record at this very meet one year earlier. Going in, we would have set the over/under line for world records on Saturday at 1.5.

But that does not make the records any less impressive. Kipyegon, especially, could have been excused for coming out flat: she spent the first half of the year gearing up for her Breaking4 attempt in Paris last week, and while she ran the fastest mile ever by a woman (4:06.91 — or 4:06.42 if you go by Nike’s sketchy timing rules), the attempt surely took a great mental and emotional toll. But rather than wallow in any disappointment, Kipyegon chose to capitalize on her fitness. A day after Breaking4, she was already talking about breaking the WR at Pre, and now she has it.

Kipyegon may never run a sub-4:00 mile, but she is now the first woman to break 3:49. In fact, she is still the only woman to break 3:50 as well. Even in an age of super shoes, where women are running faster than ever before, Kipyegon is on a completely different level.

The fact that Kipyegon and Chebet broke their world records on the same day is exceedingly rare. A few meets in recent years have featured multiple distance world records: NN World Record Day in Valencia in 2020 (women’s 5,000, men’s 10,000), the 2023 Paris Diamond League (women’s 5,000, men’s 2-mile, men’s steeple), and, if you count indoors, the 2025 Millrose Games (men’s mile and 3,000). But you’d have to go back 32 years, to the notorious 1993 National Games of China, to find a meet that saw multiple women’s distance world records go down (that one saw WRs in the 1500, 3000, and 10,000, though those records have long been assumed to be aided by performance-enhancing drugs).

Beatrice Chebet is the first woman under 14:00. And she can go much, much faster.

There was a minute during the race where it looked as if the world record might be slipping away from Chebet. Though Puma Elite’s Dorcas Ewoi paced Chebet through the first 2000 meters in 5:35.5 and Chebet reached 3k under record pace in 8:22.9 (13:58 pace), she started to slow at that point. World record pace is 67.21 per 400 and Chebet went 68.98 and 68.95 for laps 8 and 9. She wasn’t dropping Tsegay and Ngetich, and it was fair to wonder whether the WR might be slipping away from her.

But Chebet quickly righted the ship, going 67.2 from 3600 to 4000m, and a 68.0 brought her to the bell behind record pace, but in striking distance of the mark. She needed a 63.9 for the record — well within Chebet’s capabilities when she is feeling good. That looked like it might be an issue when Chebet opened her last lap with a 32.9 first 200, but it immediately became apparent with 200 to go that Chebet had a lot left in the tank as she closed in 28.8 to break the record by more than two seconds.

Considering how hard Chebet closed her last 200 and considering Saturday’s race did not feature great conditions for 5,000m running — sunny, with temps in the mid-70s — it seems clear Chebet can go significantly faster for this distance (she has already run a world record of 13:54 on the roads). And that is before you consider that Chebet, who is still only 25, might still be improving. Should Chebet stay healthy over the next few years, it would not be a shock to see her take the track record below 13:50.

With her fourth world record (and third in the 1500), Faith Kipyegon is in rare company

Faith Kipyegon is so unquestionably the women’s 1500m GOAT that is easy to forget how long the world record eluded her. Kipyegon racked up global titles in 2016, 2017, 2021, and 2022 along with a slew of fast times, but did not break her first 1500 world record until 2023, when she ran 3:49.11 at age 29. Since then, however, she has only gotten faster, running 3:49.04 last year and now 3:48.68.

Breaking the same world record three times is an exceedingly rare feat for any track runner. In the distance events, Kipyegon is the first to do it since Russia’s Gulnara Samitova-Galkina in the steeplechase in 2008, and that is back when the women’s steeple was in its infancy as an event (it was not held at the Olympics until 2008). Before that, you’d have to go back to 1998 when Haile Gebrselassie set his final world records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.

Last athlete to break world record three times (year of third record)

Results and race videos

5000m results

Chebet’s kilometer splits:
2:47.5
2:48.0
2:47.4
2:51.2
2:44.0 (61.7 final 400, 28.8 final 200)

Race video

1500 results

Kipyegon’s 400 splits
61.9
61.5
61.3
43.9 final 300 (28.8 final 200, 14.1 final 100)

Race video

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