Letesenbet Gidey and Joshua Cheptegei broke long distance world records in Valencia

Valencia: Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia set a new women’s world record of 5,000 meters in 14 minutes and 6.62 seconds in Valencia on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old dropped the previous mark of 14min.11.15 that her compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba had since 2008 by more than four seconds.

Gidey put on his short career streak a year after claiming silver in the 10,000m at the world athletics championships in Doha.

With two pacemakers assisting his record-breaking push up to 3,000 meters, Gidey kept up a fierce pace to etch his name in the athletic record books.

The performance of the double junior cross country world champion will reignite the debate over the carbon-plated Nike Vaporfly shoes she wears that have revolutionized road racing.

Gidey from Ethiopia (left) and Cheptegei from Uganda broke the 5000m and 10,000m records, respectively. Image: AFP

Joshua Cheptegei breaks the world record of 10,000 m of slopes

Later, Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda broke the world record of 10,000 meters on the track with a time of 26 minutes 11 seconds.

It dropped the previous mark of 26min 17.53sec set by Kenenisa Bekele in 2005 in Brussels.

This was the third world record of the 24-year-old 10,000m world champion this year and cemented his position as the new master of the middle distance.

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 35.35 seconds. .

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.

Another factor was her footwear, the carbon-coated Nike Vaporfly from Nike worn by Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey when she established a new women’s 5,000 meters earlier.