Faith Kipyegon the woman to beat after breaking world record in Paris Diamond League

If breaking the world record is any sort of dress rehearsal for the Olympics, Faith Kipyegon is now unquestionably the woman to beat, Kenya’s two-time defending champion improving her own 1,500m mark at the Paris Diamond League on Sunday evening, leaving Ciara Mageean among others wondering what on earth will it take to beat her.

Kipyegon’s time of 3:49.04 improved by 0.07 of a second the time she ran in Florence last year, leading home a quite astonishing depth of times which also saw Ireland’s Sarah Healy improve her lifetime best to 3:57.46 in seventh place, the 23-year-old Dublin athlete now moving to second on the Irish all-time list, ahead of Sonia O’Sullivan, second now only to Mageean, who ran her Irish record 3:55.87 last year.

Mageean had to settle for 11th place on this occasion, despite running a season best of 3:58.69 in what was her first race since winning the European 1,500m title in Rome last month.

Australia’s Jessica Hull also ran a national record in second, running 3:50.83, as did Britain’s Laura Muir in third, improving her best to 3:53.79, some indication of the quality of times required to make the podium in Paris, now just under three weeks away.

Staged at Stade Charléty, south of the Stade de France where the athletics events will happen at the Games, Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh also improved the long-standing women’s high jump world record, clearing 2.10m, one centimetre higher than the world record set by Stefka Kostadinova at the 1987 World Championships.

Kipyegon was returning to the scene of her record-breaking mark over 5,000m last year, and Mageean was well distanced in the end, Healy instead showing excellent form to stay among the chasing bunch.

Earlier on Sunday, Sophie Becker and Jodie McCann made the final athlete qualification quota for the Olympics, and will now contest the 400m and 5,000m respectively.

Five Irish athletes had already sealed a quota qualification spot for Paris after last Sunday’s cut-off date, ensuring they will join the 10 Irish athletes who already qualified automatically, along with the two relay teams, the women’s and mixed 4x400m.

Thomas Barr just missed the 40-athlete quota in the 400m hurdles, after the final list of qualifiers was published by World Athletics on Sunday. Barr is still set to travel to Paris as part of the 4x400m mixed relay having played a key role in the gold medal performance at the European Championships in Rome earlier this month.

Becker will join Rhasidat Adeleke and Sharlene Mawdsley in that event in Paris. McCann also moved up several places in the 5,000m, and is now ranked 39th of the 42 entries for Paris, the Dublin athlete joining her brother Luke, who had already qualified in the men’s 1,500m.

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For the men’s 1,500m in Paris, McCann and Cathal Doyle join automatic qualifier Andrew Coscoran. Kate O’Connor had also met the highly competitive qualification in the women’s heptathlon, ranked 23rd of 24, as did 20-year-old Nicola Tuthill in the women’s hammer. Eric Favors will also be competing in his first Olympics in the shot put.

The 10 Irish athletes with the automatic qualifying marks for Paris are Adeleke (200m and 400m), Mawdsley (400m), Mageean (800m and 1,500m), Healy and Sophie O’Sullivan (both 1,500m), Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles), Fionnuala McCormack (marathon), Coscoran (1,500m), Brian Fay (5,000m) and Mark English (800m).