Nguyen Thi Oanh competes with record holder Faith Kipyegon

The World Athletics Championships are considered “beyond” Southeast Asia, but will be a rare opportunity for athlete Nguyen Thi Oanh to continue to learn in a top competition environment with the world’s top runners, and at the same time re-evaluate her performance to prepare for the 19th ASIAD.

At the 2023 World Athletics Championships held in Budapest (Hungary), Nguyen Thi Oanh is the only representative of Vietnam to participate and compete in her specialty event of 1,500m. She participated in the tournament as a special quota from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for countries that do not have athletes meeting the required standards.

Of course, the 2023 World Athletics Championships is the pinnacle of competition, gathering all the world's top runners to compete. Therefore, Nguyen Thi Oanh will have the opportunity to meet the best athletes on the planet, most notably Kenya's Faith Kipyegon, who is currently the world's number 1 in this distance.

The IAAF homepage believes that Faith Kipyegon is the number 1 candidate for the 1,500m championship. Returning after a long break due to injury, the athlete born in 1994 is showing great form. The most memorable milestone was achieved by Kipyegon at the Florence Diamond League on June 2, 2023. At that time, Kipyegon became the first woman in the world to run 1,500m under 3 minutes 50 seconds when she finished first with a time of 3 minutes 49 seconds 23, breaking the record of 3 minutes 50 seconds 07 set by Ethiopian athlete Genzebe Dibaba in July 2015.

A week later, at the Paris Diamond League, Kipyegon continued to break the women's 5,000m world record with a time of 14 minutes 05 seconds 20. The old milestone belonged to Ethiopian athlete Letesenbet Gidey with 14 minutes 06 seconds 62, set in October 2020.

According to the IAAF, Kipyegon is the first athlete to hold the world record for both the 1,500m and 5,000m events at the same time. However, the athlete born in 1994 shows no signs of stopping. In Monaco on July 21, 2023, Kipyegon continued to set a new world record in the 1 mile (1,609m) event. She broke the old record of Sifan Hassan (Netherlands) by more than 4 seconds, with a time of 4 minutes 07 seconds 64. This achievement is even equal to the world record for men's 1,500m set by Jack Lovelock (New Zealand) 90 years ago (1933).

“Barring illness, injury or an unfortunate mid-race fall, it is difficult for anyone to stop the Kenyan athlete's high form in this 2023 athletics season,” the IAAF wrote.

Kipyegon is aiming to become the first woman to complete a 1,500m hat-trick at the world championships, having won twice in 2017 and 2022. She is also aiming to become the first woman to win both the 1,500m and 5,000m double.

The rest of the 1,500m race will be contested by Tsegay (Ethiopia), who is second on the list of fastest 1,500m runners in 2023 with 3:54:03; world indoor bronze medalist Hirut Meshesha (3:54:87); world U20 champion Birke Haylom (3:54:93); Sifan Hassan, who spent 84 weeks as world number one in the women's 1,500m...

According to VTC