Nairobi — Faith Kipyegon further underlined her status as the greatest 1500m runner of all time with another easy victory as she sailed into the final at the World Athletics Championships with Timothy Cheruiyot, Abel Kipsang and Kumari Taki making the semis in the men's race.
Kipyegon was peerless in her Heat, winning in 4:03.98 ahead of Ethiopia's Hirut Meshesha to make a place in Tuesday morning's final.
The double Olympic champion who is seeking to wrestle the title she lost to Sifan Hassan in Doha 2019 controlled the tempo of the race from start to finish, and just like the first round, didn't break a sweat in winning.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay who is the biggest threat to Kipyegon's throne posted the fastest time in the semis, winning her Heat in 4:01.28 ahead of Great Britain's Laura Muir.
Meanwhile, despite finishing sixth in the first semi-final, African champion Winny Chebet also qualified to the final by virtue of being one of the fastest finishers outside the automatic slots.
She timed a season's best of 4:03.08 and benefited from Tsegay's fast pace to squeeze into the final.
In the men's race, Charles Simotwo was the only casualty from the first round as reigning champion Timothy Cheruiyot, Abel Kisang and Kumari Taki all progressed to the semi-finals.
While Cheruiyot and Kipsang qualified among the automatic timers, Taki had to wait till the end to squeeze in as one of the fastest non automatic qualifiers.
Reigning champion Cheruiyot lined up in Heat One and did just but enough to hang in with the leading pack. Knowing too well that he is just returning from a nagging hamstring, he did not kick himself too much and just maintained a pace enough to get him through.
He timed 3:36.41 to make the semis, in a Heat won by Australia's Oliver Hoare in 3:36.17. Samuel Tefera of Ethiopia and Andrew Coscoran finished second and third.
In the second Heat, Taki and Simotwo finished ninth and 10th. However, Taki was luckier as his time of 3:36.47 from the fastest of the three heats took him across as one of the non-automatic qualifiers.
Heat Three was the slowest, but on-form Kisang still managed to squeeze in to the next round after finishing third in a time 3:39.21 in a race won by Great Britain's Josh Kerr in a time of 3:38.94.
In the women's steeplechase, Celiphine Chespol will be the sole flagbearer in the final after Jackline Chepkoech and Purity Kirui fell by the wayside.
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Reigning champion Beatrice Chepkoech did not compete as she pulled out in the eleventh hour due to a recurring stress fracture.
World U20 champion Jackline finished sixth in her heat in 9:27.50, slightly over 15 seconds outside third place. Kirui was 11th in her Heat in 9:26.88.
Meanwhile Chespol bossed her Heat, winning in 9:16.78.
However, the lady to watch in the steeple is Kenyan turned Kazakhstani Norah Jeruto who obliterated her Heat to win in a fast time of 9:01.54, 10 seconds ahead of the second placed Ethiopian Werkuha Getachew.
Elsewhere, Kenya's sole flagbearer in the men's 400m hurdles Moitalel Mpoke progressed to the semis after finishing fourth in his heat.
The 21 year old World Under-18 silver medalist from 2018 put in a superb sprint in the final 50m of the race to go through automatically, timing 50.19secs in a race won by World Record holder Karsten Warholm who clocked 49.34.
