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Valencia (Spain) (AFP)
Joshua Cheptegei broke the 10,000-meter world record and Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey set a new record for the women’s 5,000 meters on a heady track night in Valencia on Wednesday.
All that was talked about in the run-up to the meeting was about Cheptegei’s assault on Kenenisa Bekele’s time of 26min 17.53sec set in 2005 in Brussels.
The 24-year-old 10,000m world champion exceeded expectations, running the distance in 26 minutes and 11 seconds to cement his position as the new master of the middle distance.
This was his third world record this year.
In February he claimed the world record for 5km on the road in Monaco.
Then, after a period of coronavirus lockdown in his native Uganda, he returned to Monaco and, in his first run back, erased almost two seconds of Bekele’s world record time of 16 years on the track above 5,000m while it ticked 12 minutes 35.36 seconds. .
He becomes the 10th athlete to simultaneously hold the 5000m and 10,000m world records.
Cheptegei gave notice of his class when he took silver at the 2017 world championships in London while he was still 20 years old.
Last year was better, collecting gold in Doha. He had already won the world cross-country championship five months earlier.
As of Wednesday, Cheptegei had only the 18th fastest time in the distance with a best in Doha of 26 minutes 48.36 seconds, more than half a minute off the record.
But his performance in August boded well and he was assisted by some fast pacemakers, notably the Kenyan Nicholas Kimeli, who was a 5,000-meter world finalist, and electronic timing along the track.
– ‘I dreamed of this’ –
Another factor for the Manchester United fan was his footwear, the carbon-coated Nike Vaporfly from Nike worn by Gidey of Ethiopia when he ran the first 5,000m in 14 minutes and 6.62 seconds.
The 22-year-old dropped the previous mark of 14min 11.15 set by compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba since 2008 by more than four seconds.
Gidey put on his short career streak one year after taking silver in the 10,000m at the world athletics championships in Doha.
With two pacemakers helping her bid for the record up to 3,000 meters, Gidey kept up a fierce pace to record her name in the athletic record books.
“I’m happy,” Gidey said. “I dreamed of this record for six years. I want to thank Valencia for giving me this opportunity.”
© 2020 AFP
