Bahrain’s Jepkosgei edges tight 1,500m finish in Sweden

Nelly Jepkosgei may still be chasing championship qualifying times, but she showed in Sweden she hasn’t lost her finishing kick.

The 34-year-old Bahraini Olympian surged late to win the women’s 1,500 metres at the Folksam Grand Prix Sollentuna. She capped her bronze-level stop on the World Athletics Continental Tour with a time of 4:09.26. Jepkosgei held off Australia’s Claudia Hollingsworth by just 0.17 seconds, with Morocco’s Soukaina Hajji third in 4:11.51.

Swedes Wilma Nielsen (4:11.62) and Yolanda Ngarambe (4:11.87) finished fourth and fifth, followed by Kristiina Sasinek Maki of Czechia, Morocco’s Bahiya El Arfaoui, and Norway’s Anne Gine Lovnes.

For Jepkosgei, it was her second-fastest 1,500m of the year, behind only the 4:04.01 she ran in Rabat in May. That’s still some way off her 2018 personal best of 4:00.99, but she’s been balancing multiple events this season, including an 800m best of 2:02.66 and a cross country race. Her national-record 800m mark of 1:57.69 came just last year in Trier, Germany.

She has until Aug. 24 to hit the World Championships standards, which currently stands at 4:01.50 for the 1,500m and 1:59.00 for the 800m, before Tokyo. For now, she sits 83rd in the 800m world rankings and outside the top 100 in the 1,500m.