Gudaf Tsegay rebounds with No.2 all time indoor 1500m in Torun

On Feb 16, 2025 303

Addis Ababa, February 16, 2025 (FMC) — World indoor record-holder Gudaf Tsegay ran the second-fastest indoor 1500m of all time, clocking 3:53.92 to improve her own meeting record at the ORLEN Copernicus Cup, the penultimate Gold level meeting of this season’s World Athletics Indoor Tour, in Torun on Sunday (16).

Rebounding after her 3000m defeat at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Lievin on Thursday, Ethiopia’s Tsegay was back on top in Torun and she was clearly delighted with a performance that missed her own world record of 3:53.09 set in Lievin in 2021 by just 0.83.

The two-time world champion now owns the three fastest women’s indoor 1500m times in history, having also run 3:54.77 – the previous meeting record – in Torun in 2022. The next fastest performance on the world all-time list is her compatriot Genzebe Dibaba’s former world record of 3:55.17 set in Karlsruhe in 2014.

Tsegay – who explained after the race how she had suffered flu in the lead up to the competition in Lievin – was on form in Torun and she looked comfortable as she followed the pacemaker through 400m in 1:02.1. She then reached 800m in 2:05.2, followed by her 19-year-old compatriot Birke Haylom, who finished one place behind Tsegay in the Lievin 3000m in a world U20 indoor record.

But Haylom couldn’t hold on as Tsegay picked up the pace, the 28-year-old reaching 1200m in 3:07.9 and surging away to storm over the finish line in 3:53.92. Haylom, the 2022 world U20 champion, was a distant runner-up in 3:59.82 and Worknesh Mesele completed an Ethiopian top three in 4:02.19.

With little over a month until the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25 and with wild card entries up for grabs in the 11 scoring disciplines on this year’s World Indoor Tour, athletes were keen to bank some precious points and make their mark.

Britain’s Elliot Giles was another athlete looking to rebound after his performance in Lievin and after finishing 10th in the mile there, he ran a well-judged race to win the 1500m in Torun. Ethiopia’s Biniam Mehary, who set a world U20 indoor 3000m in Lievin, had tracked the pacemaker and took control once Adam Czerwiński stepped aside.

But Giles was waiting to kick and he left his attack for the final bend, striding past Mehary to clinch the win – 3:35.43 to 3:35.70. Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom was third in 3:36.06.