Fatih Kipyegon to attempt first women’s sub-four minute mile

Three-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon is to attempt to become the first woman to run a sub-four minute mile.

The 31-year-old Kenyan will make the attempt in Paris on 26 June.

It will not be recognised as an official record because Kipyegon is likely to use a team of rotating pacemakers and technologically advanced trainers and kit from her sponsor Nike.

Kipyegon set the current official women’s mile world record of four minutes 7.64 seconds in 2023 so would need to shave off more than seven seconds to achieve the feat.

“I’m a three-time Olympic champion. I’ve achieved World Championship titles. I thought, ‘what else?’, why not dream outside the box?” Kipyegon said.

“I want this attempt to say to women, ‘you can dream and make your dreams valid’.”

Kipyegon became the first woman to win 1500m gold at three successive Olympics with her success in Paris last year and holds the world record over that distance. She also has three World 1500m titles and won 5,000m gold at the 2023 World Championships.

Five of those gold medals were won after she gave birth to her daughter Alyn in 2018.

“Becoming a mother has changed my entire mental attitude,” she said. “You have to engage yourself, you have to show your child the way.”

Britain’s Roger Bannister was the first man to run a sub-four minute mile, achieving the mark in May 1954, while compatriot Diane Leather was the first women to run sub-five minutes later that month.

Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj holds the men’s world record time of 3:43.13 set in 1999.

In October 2019 Kipyegon’s fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, beating the mark by 20 seconds.

However, it is not recognised as the official marathon world record because it was not in open competition and featured a team of rotating pacemakers.