PR stunt or giant leap for women? Kipyegon goes extra mile to break barrier

Just before 8pm local time in Paris tonight, Faith Kipyegon will play her favourite pre-race song, Shakira's Try Everything, to pump her up.

- Sean Ingle

Then, after listening to the hit from Zootropolis, she will try to chase down the impossible.

The 31-year-old from Kenya is already a three-time Olympic champion, the world mile record holder, and arguably the greatest female middle-distance runner in history. And now she intends a spectacular encore, by becoming the first woman to crash through the four-minute mile barrier.

Every scientific instinct suggests it won't happen - at least not yet. Kipyegon's world record for the mile is 4min 7.64sec, which means she will have to find nearly eight seconds. In a sport decided by fractions, that is a chasm.

Yet Faith certainly has faith that she can emulate Sir Roger Bannister, who was the first man to achieve the feat in 1954. "You can't limit yourself," she says. "You have to dream, to go for that risk and just believe in yourself in everything you do. We all have the same dreams. And what a man can do, a woman can do."