- Ethiopia duo of Diribe Welteji and Freweyni Hailu is tipped to give Chepkoech a run for her money.
- Chepkoech ran her national record of 4:02.09 in 2020.
Image: FILE
World 3000m steeplechase record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech will form part of a strong women's 1500m field for the ORLEN Copernicus Cup, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Poland, on February 6.
Also in the mix is Ethiopia's Diribe Welteji who set a world record when winning the mile at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga in October, as she clocked 4:20.98 to pip her compatriot Freweyni Hailu and Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon.
World indoor 1500m bronze medallist Hirut Meshesha(also from Ethiopia) and Uganda’s 2019 world 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi are part of the quality field expected in Torun.
As well as being the world road mile champion, Welteji is the world 1500m silver medallist, having finished runner-up to Kipyegon in Budapest in August. Hailu is the world indoor 800m silver medallist, while Chepkoech is the Kenyan record-holder in the 1500m short track.
Chepkoech ran her national record of 4:02.09 in 2020.
Over in New York five days later, multiple US record-holder Grant Fisher will take on the already announced world champion Josh Kerr in the two mile race at the Millrose Games.
The race on February 11 is set to be paced with the world indoor two-mile best of 8:03.40 as the target.
Joining them on the start line will be USA’s Joe Klecker, Cooper Teare and Dylan Jacobs; New Zealand’s George Beamish; Australia’s Morgan McDonald and Ky Robinson; Britain’s Matthew Stonier; Japan’s Keita Satoh; Ethiopia’s Samuel Firewu and Addisu Yihune; and Sam Parsons of Germany.
Another head-to-head in New York will come in the men’s pole vault, where Olympic and world medallist Chris Nilsen will go up against North American record-holder KC Lightfoot. They will face their US compatriots Zach McWhorter, Matt Ludwig and Zach Bradford.
It is the first time since 2014 that the men’s pole vault will be contested at the Millrose Games.