Faith Kipyegon to begin chase for Diamond League history in Xiamen

Three-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon will launch her 2025 Diamond League season this April by featuring at the opening event in Xiamen, China.

Kipyegon, who capped another memorable year 2024 by claiming Olympic gold and a fifth Diamond League title, will surprisingly run in the women’s 1000m, where many expect her to go for a world record.

The 31-year-old confirmed her appearance in the 26 April event, shortly after Wanda Diamond League posted the video of her record-breaking 5000m, 1500m and mile runs in 2024.

In Xiamen, Kipyegon features in a race where she ranks second all-time, and just 0.2 seconds behind the world record held by Svetlana Masterkova.

Her current personal best - and the African record - is 2:29.15, which she set at the Stade Louis II, Monaco on 14 August 2020.

Kenya to face defending champions Senegal in AFCON U20 Championships

Also on Kipyegon’s sights as she begins her Diamond League season will be a chance to claim a record-equaling sixth overall title, which will place her alongside Sandra Elkasevic as the joint most successful female athlete in Diamond League history.

Having begun with an injury scare - that caused her to skip last year’s leg in Xiamen - Kipyegon ended up with a Diamond Trophy at the series final in Brussels last September.

Also on the card in Xiamen this year will be Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, who last year won 200m races in Monaco, Lausanne, Silesia and Zurich, as well as the 100m in Rome. Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred and three-time Diamond League high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh are the other names that have already been confirmed for the event.