Faith Kipyegon’s Breaking4: Kenyan superstar misses out on breaking 4-minute mile barrier but says ‘it’s a matter of time’

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Faith Kipyegon sprint Breaking4 Kenya's Faith Kipyegon runs surrounded by her pacemakers in an attempt to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes, at Stade Charlety in Paris on Thursday. (AP Photo)

As she entered the final stretch of the mile, the pacemakers around Faith Kipyegon were clapping along as they were running. The clock had already ticked past 3:50.00 by then, and the lights that were glowing along the track as she ran, to indicate if she was keeping pace, were also a bit ahead of her. It was evident by then that the four-minute barrier wasn’t about to be broken today. But Kipyegon kept running, she didn’t slow down, and as she crossed the finish line, she laid down on her back on the track at Stade Charlety. History, in one sense, wasn’t achieved. But it was pretty audacious what she set out to do – to shave off more than 7.64 seconds from her official mile record of 4:07.64, set last year. And in her attempt at ‘Breaking4’, she did manage to run faster than that, clocking a time of 4:06.42.

It won’t be the new World Record, of course, but it lived up to the theme of the evening in Paris. As Eliud Kipchoge – the man who attempted a sub-2-hour marathon in a similar setting and missed out in his first attempt before achieving it with his second – put it earlier in the evening: Kipyegon dared to try. More than 2000 male runners have completed the mile in under 4 minutes since Roger Bannister broke that barrier in May 1954. Kipyegon’s attempt to become the first woman ever is a significant one, and even she hoped it would be a matter of time before someone – or herself – breaks the glass ceiling.

“Exhausted,” she said, at the end of the race – with Kipchoge and her pacestters by her side, beaming with wide smiles at running the best ever mile. “I feel good, I have tried. That is why I came here, try to be the first woman to run under 4 minutes. I have proven that it’s possible (to try) and it is only a matter of time. I think it will come our way. If it’s not me, it will be somebody else. I won’t lose hope still, I will go for it. If not in a special event like this, in a normal Diamond League or anything like that. I hope I will get it one day,” said the three-time 1500m Olympic gold medallist. The Kenyan, who currently holds the world record in 1500m too, had set the official women’s mile world record nearly two years ago during a Diamond League meet in Monaco.

Faith Kipyegon attempted to become the first woman to run a sub four-minute mile 😤

( 🎥 Nike) pic.twitter.com/KmDFNRPIzw

— espnW (@espnW) June 26, 2025

In the Breaking4 project designed by Nike, Kipyegon’s attempt was based on multiple aspects of innovation to aid her dip under 4 minutes: She used a team of 13 elite pace setters made of 11 men and two women who were positioned in front and behind her to reduce drag. She had a specially designed too suit and a specialised pair of shoes too, while identifying the right location was considered a significant part of the planning process too. Stade Charlety is where she broke the 1500m world record last year, when she ran 3:49.04. Her best 5000m timing is also at this venue.

But on Thursday, despite a seemingly strong start, Kipyegon’s attempt started to lose steam midway through. After two laps, she started to drift further behind the lights that run along the track at a pre-determined speed to show how she is tracking. The third lap was where she started to fall off the pace. She is known for her strong finishing kick though, but it wasn’t quite enough to push the boundaries as she and her team had hoped to.

Kipyegon is already a path-breaking middle-distance runner. In June 2018, she gave birth to her daughter Alyn, and one year later she was back competing. “My first race back came a year after giving birth: June 2019 in Stanford. I was really not in good shape, not sure how my body would cope, so I wasn’t expecting much. To win a Diamond League race and break four minutes for 1500m was a huge surprise. Four months later, I ran a perfect race in Doha, winning 1500m silver and setting a Kenyan record of 3:54.22. That was two seconds quicker than I had ever run, a time I couldn’t do before maternity, which is proof of what’s possible,” Kipyegon write in a September 2020 column for World Athletics.

At 31, she dared to redefine what was possible for female athletes. The Bannister moment didn’t arrive, but she still ran a better time than she ever has, and continues to push the boundaries for what is deemed possible.