June 26 (UPI) -- Faith Kipyegon opened her stride with 200 meters to go, but crossed the finish line in 4:06.42, coming just shy of her goal of becoming the first woman to run a sub-4 minute mile Thursday in Paris.
More than 70 years have passed since Roger Banniser became the first human to clock a sub-4 minute mile. While Kipyegon did not enter that exclusive group -- which now includes thousands of male runners -- she did beat her previous women's record of 4:07.64.
"I'm exhausted," Kipyegon said on a stream of the event on the Nike YouTube channel. "I'm tired, but I feel good. I tried. That is why I was coming here, to try to be the first woman to run under 4 minutes.
"I've proven that it's possible. It's only a matter of time. I think it will come. If it's not me, it will be somebody somebody else."
Thousands of fans surrounded the track at Stade Sebastien Charlety. Kipyegon initially stayed on pace to set her goal, while aided by 13 world-class pacers -- including nine men and four women. That group featured American Grant Fisher, who won bronze in the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter events at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Kipyegon's time will not count as a ratified world record because of male pacers, who acted as a wind-blocking shield. She also ran alongside an interior light strip, which illuminated different colors based on her pace. Kipyegon, who was outfitted with cutting-edge gear from Nike, including a one-of-a-kind Nike Fly Suit, a FlyWeb Bra and first-of-their-kind Victory 2 Elite FK spikes, clocked a time of 1:00.2 over her first 400 meters, just ahead of the 1:00.40 pace.
The female pacers dropped out of the group after 800 meters, when Kipyegon clocked in at 2:00.75, about 0.12 slower than the needed pace. She was at 3:01.84 through 1,200 meters, 1.62 seconds behind pace. The front pacers started the break away from Kipyegon as others attempted to power her to the finish line.
Kipyegon pumped her arms while showered in cheers as she raced the clock. She eventually broke a finish-line ribbon before falling to her back in exhaustion and being embraced by the pacers, coach Patrick Sang and Kenyan record marathoner Eliud Kipchoge.
"I hope I will get it one time," Kipyegon said. "I want to thank all of you for coming for cheering me on this was really special. I did not expect to see many people. I'm so grateful. I have proved to the world that everything is possible."
The 31-year-old Kenyan athlete previously set 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter women's world records at the same Paris track. She first set the 5,000-meter mark with a 14:05.20 performance in 2023, but that record now belongs to Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay.
Kipyegon's 3:49.04 record for the 1,500, which she set when she won gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics, still stands. She won the last three Olympic gold medals in that event. Kipyegon earned silver in the 5,000-meter event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Kipyegon's time Thursday is nearly six seconds faster than the second-fastest woman to run a mile -- The Netherlands' Sifan Hassan ran a 4:12.33 in 2019.
"The journey has not been so smooth because it takes a lot of effort," Sang said. "You have to push the athlete sometimes and you also have to work with so many other people and in different training environments. It hasn't been smooth but the target has always been in focus."
Kipyegon, who needed to trim off more than seven seconds off her own best time to break four minutes, finished 1.22 seconds better than that 4:07.64 mark, which she set July 21, 2023 at the Monaco Diamond League.
American icon Carl Lewis, a nine-time Olympic gold medalist, Ugandan 800-meter world champion, Halimah Nakaayi and Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson -- the 800-meter gold medalist from the 2024 Summer Olympics -- were among the broadcast analysts for Thursday's event.
Bannister, who died in 2018, became the first person to clock a sub-4 minute mile when he ran a 3:59.4 on May 6, 1954. The British middle-distance expert went on to log a career-best 3:58.8 later that year to win a gold medal at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
Since Bannister's initial achievement, the sub-4-minute mark has been broken more than 2,000 times in the mile, according to World Athletics. Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj holds the men's record, which he set with a 3:43.13 mark at the Golden Gala meet on July 7, 1999, in Rome. El Guerrouj, a three-time Olympic medalist, also holds the world record for the 1,500 (3:26:00).
Yared Nuguse holds the American record for the mile. He set that mark with a 3:43.97 effort at the Prefontaine Classic in 2023 in Eugene, Ore.
Nikki Hiltz is the fastest American female miler. She set that mark when she finished sixth with a 4:16.35 in the same event in which Kipyegon set the overall record in Monaco. Kipyegon and Hiltz are among the eight women who rank inside the Top 16 for the fastest women to complete the mile from that race alone. American Elise Cranny finished eighth in the event with a 4:16.47, the 16th-fastest mile ever ran by a woman.
"What makes Faith so exceptional is that she is one of the women that dare to try, dare to dream," Kipchoge said.
