Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda smashed the 5km road world record in Monaco on Sunday 16 January 2020, knocking 27 seconds off the time set by Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto last month.
VIDEO of this run is displayed below.
An incredible time of 12 minutes and 51 seconds was significantly faster than the time Kipruto set last month en route to setting a 10km road world record in the 10K Valencia Ibercaja, in Spain.
This is the first time an athlete has ever broken 13 minutes for 5km outside of the track. The 5,000 metres track World Record is 12:37.35 – only 14 seconds faster than this road time – and is held by Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, who set the time in Hengelo, Netherlands, in 2002. The thirteen minute barrier on the track was broken in 1985, by Saïd Aouita.
Today’s record time was Cheptegei’s first race of this season.
France’s Jimmy Gressier finished second in Monaco with a time of 13:18 beating the European record of 13:29 set by Julien Wanders in the same race last year.
Watch the Full Run
Speaking of his record breaking 5km time, Cheptegei said:
“Wow, this is really great.
I had sub 13 minutes in my mind today so when my legs felt good during the race, I really decided to go for it,
To take this many seconds of the record makes me very happy and is a great first test for me in an important season.”
Joshua Cheptegei
The video below featuring the athlete was posted before the event: