Silver a good consolation for returning Chepng’etich
Keith McGhie in Doha
Faith Chepng’etich was consoled for losing her world title by a massive personal best in an extraordinary 1,500m final which saw Sifan Hassan claim an unprecedented brace of gold medals in by far the fastest time since Genzebe Dibaba set the world record in 2015.
Kenya’s Olympic champion Chepng’etich, who only gave birth to first daughter Alyn 15 months ago, completed a superb comeback with a silver medal but had no answer to Hassan’s amazing burst of pace on the last lap which puled no fewer than nine of the 12 starters around in either national record, personal or season’s best times.
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Chepng’etich, who won world championship gold in London two years ago, was the only one who looked close to going with Ethiopia-born Dutch athlete Hassan, who won the 10,000m the previous weekend but whose achievements have sadly been overshadowed by her association with disgraced coach Alberto Salazar and the Nike Oregon project with whom she trained.
The 25-year-old Bomet native clocked 3:54.22, 2.1 seconds faster than she had ever run over the distance before while the other Kenyan Winnie Chebet also smashed her personal best with 3:58.20 in seventh place.
