Double Olympic 1500m gold medallist Faith Kipyegon will return to Luigi Ridolfi Stadium in Florence where she narrowly lost to double Olympic champion, Sifan Hassan in a thrilling 1500m race two years ago.
The 29 year-old was beaten to second in a thrilling race of a lifetime when Hassan set the Meeting Record of 3:53.63 with Kipyegon coming home in second in 3:53.91. The Kenyan has since improved this record by more than three seconds to 3:50.37 a time she set last year in August at the Monaco Diamond League meeting where she became the second fastest woman in the universe behind Genzebe Dibaba who holds the fastest time over the distance of 3:50.07 that she set in Monaco in 2015.
Kipyegon who has won a total of 18 Diamond League races, has not won at the Golden Gala yet and she will be looking to improve her tally in Florence as she faces the Tokyo Olympics 1500m silver medallist, Laura Muir who comes to this race with a life time best and National Record time of 3:54.50.
The two will also have to get past the world Indoor 3000m champion, Diribe Welteji from Ethiopia, who is aiming to continue her good season after finishing second to Kipyegon in Doha in a time 3:59.34 and winning the Los Angeles Grand Prix in 3:57.84.
Other title contenders include Canadian record holder Gabriela Debues who comes to this race with a life time best of 3:58.93 that she got in Tokyo. Australian record holder, Jessica Hull, her compatriot Linden Hall, Ireland’s Clara Mageean, United States Josette Andrews Norrie and Sage Hurta Klecker will also be fighting for the top honors.
The home crowd will have their hopes on Ludovica Cavalli, who improved her personal best to 4:04.79 in Rabat, Sintayehu Vissa, National indoor record holder in the mile with 4:24.54 that she got at the Millrose Games in New York, and the 2015 European Indoor 1500m bronze medallist, Federica Del Buono.
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