Nelly Chepchirchir (born 4 June 2003) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner. She competed for Kenya at the

2023 World Athletics Championships The 2023 World Athletics Championships (), the nineteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships, were held from 19 to 27 August 2023 at the National Athletics Centre (Budapest), National Athletics Centre, in Budapest, Hungary. The tourna ...

and

2024 Olympic Games The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Career

Chepchirchir competed for Kenya at the

2022 World Athletics U20 Championships The 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships, also known colloquially by its former official title, the World Junior Championships, was an international athletics competition for athletes qualifying as juniors (born no earlier than 1 January 2003 ...

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE in 2023. The city span ...

, Colonbia, where she qualified for the final of the

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

. In the final, she ran a new personal best time of 2:01.42 to finish in fourth place overall. Chepchirchir ran a new personal best time of 1:58.23 for the 800 metres in

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and a ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the province of Grosseto and the main city of the Maremma region. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the ...

, Italy in May 2023. The following month, she set a new personal time best in the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1500-metre run is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletics since 1983. It is equivalent to 1.5 kilomet ...

, running 3:58.96 in June 2023, in

Hengelo Hengelo (; Tweants dialect, Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the Twente region, in the province of Overijssel. It is part of a larger urban area that also includes Enschede, Borne, Overijssel, Borne, Almelo and Ol ...

, Netherlands. She won the 1500 metres title at the Kenyan national trials, running 3:59.77 in

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

, in July 2023. She then won the Gyulai Istvan Memorial, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event, in Szekesfehervar, Hungary in July 2023, running a time of 4:00.18 for the 1500 metres. Selected for the

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, she won her heat and her semi-final in the 1500m to qualify for the final. In the final, she ran a 3:57.90 personal best to finish fifth. The following week, she lowered her 1500m personal best again, running 3:56.72 whilst competing at the

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

Xiamen Xiamen,), also known as Amoy ( ; from the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation, zh, c=, s=, t=, p=, poj=Ē͘-mûi, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Stra ...

, China. In May 2024, she finished third in the 1500 metres at the

2024 Doha Diamond League The 2024 Seashore Group Doha Diamond League was the 26th edition of the annual outdoor track and field meeting in Doha, Qatar. Held on 10 May at the Suheim bin Hamad Stadium, it was the third leg of the 2024 Diamond League – the highest level i ...

. She competed in the 1500 metres at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in August 2024, where she reached the semi-finals but did not progress to the final. In May 2025, she won the 1500 metres race at the

2025 Doha Diamond League The 2025 Doha Diamond League was the 27th edition of the annual outdoor track and field meeting in Doha, Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the nor ...

race in a time of 4:05.00. The following week, she also won the 1500 metres at the

2025 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat The 2025 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat was the 16th edition of the annual outdoor track and field meeting in Rabat, Morocco. Held on 25 May at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Olympic Annex Stadium, it was the fourth leg of ...

and also won the 2025 Meeting de Paris in 3:57.02 in June 2025, both also part of the

2025 Diamond League The 2025 Diamond League is the sixteenth season of the annual series of outdoor track and field meetings, organised by World Athletics. The competition is a revision to the top level athletics series since Diamond League foundation in 2010. Th ...

References

2003 births Living people Kenyan female long-distance runners Olympic athletes for Kenya Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics 21st-century Kenyan sportswomen Diamond League winners {{Kenya-athletics-bio-stub