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When is the attempt?
Kenyan great, Faith Kipyegon, will attempt the sub-four-minute mile on Thursday, June 26 at 10:15 PM PST, 1:15 PM EST and 9:15 PM GMT or 12:15 (GMT+3). The respective time zones are for cities like Los Angeles, New York, London and Nairobi.
The event will be streamed live on Prime Video and Nike’s YouTube channel, as well as Nike’s Instagram and TikTok accounts.
A two-part docuseries about Kipyegon’s training and life in Kenya was streamed on June 20 on Prime Video. Part two will be streamed in July after the event.
From Bannister to Kipyegon in 71 years…
More than 71 years ago, Englishman Roger Bannister became the first person to be officially timed to run under four minutes in the mile.
It was on May 6, 1954, that Bannister achieved the feat. He ran the mile in 3:59.4 seconds at Oxford University’s Iffley Road Track.
Kipyegon’s goal of becoming the first woman to run the 1609-metre imperial mile under four minutes was inspired by fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge’s two attempts to run sub-two hours in the 42.195-kilometre marathon. He tried in Italy, then again in Austria. The second time, flanked by many pacers, was a success; however, neither count as official marathon races or records. He is, however, the first man to be recorded running under two hours for the distance. The performance is considered a time trial.
Kipyegon has to have a very big leap in performance to run under the 4:00 benchmark. Her current personal best is 4:07.64. On the other hand, she has raced better over the shorter 1500m distance, dubbed the metric mile. She recorded a 3:49.04 result, which is a much better performance. World Athletics points performance rating gives the 1500m 1295 pts, while her mile best is 1286 pts.
The difference is a lot. Her 1500m is rated somewhere between 4:03.39 and 4:03.51 for the mile. While the World Athletics scoring tables are not pitch perfect, they are good, and the difference in her mile time versus her projected mile time based on her 1500m best is a whopping four seconds. She achieved the two world records in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
So, can she lop 7.65 seconds off her mile time? It appears that she can take approximately 4.0 seconds off. Thereby improving the world record and putting it out of reach for a long time. The extra 109m feels like a very long way, if she is racing at absolute max.
At 31 years of age, she is running out of time. While she may remain internationally competitive for several more years, the absolute peak is typically when someone is in their late 20s to early 30s, depending on several factors.
