Faith Kipyegon lowers her mile benchmark, but fails to complete the distance in under 4 minutes

That a runner, world record holder though she may be, could complete the mile (1,609.04 meters) in less than four minutes, no one in the athletics world really believed it. "Four minutes in the 1,500 meters is already stratospheric, let alone in the mile..." , summarized the Frenchwoman Alice Finot, a middle-distance specialist, on June 19, on the eve of the Paris meeting.

Faith Kipyegon, the world record holder for this distance, nevertheless took on this crazy challenge. In front of 5,000 spectators gathered at the Charléty Stadium in Paris on the evening of Thursday, June 26, the 31-year-old Kenyan finished her race in 4:06.42. Better than her previous record – 4:07.64, set in 2023 in Monaco – but not enough to make history. This time will not be approved in any case, as it is an unofficial event organized by her equipment supplier under conditions very different from those required by international bodies.

Yet everything had come together to favor the performance of the woman who is also a three-time Olympic 1,500m champion . As she entered the track, escorted by the thirteen "pacers" who would set the pace for her during the race, Faith Kipyegon wore a suit designed to be as aerodynamic as possible and brand new spikes. Equipment custom-made by the brand's development teams, at its research institute located in Oregon, on the west coast of the United States.

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