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The weather in Monaco a day ago wasn’t conducive for a world record attempt at distance—79˚ with a high dewpoint—but 23-Year-Old Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei—proved undeterred.
Photo from 2019 World Championships by Kevin Morris.
The current World Champion in XC and at 10,000m had set a world road 5K record of 12:51 earlier in the year.
Ethiopian great Kenenisa Bekelehad the longest standing distance record in the world—12:37.35, and Cheptegei would better it by 2-seconds to 12:35.36.
He did so solo after the pacemakers dropped off halfway into the race. Cheptegei was a metronome, running laps in the low 60s throughout and closing in 59.64.
Cheptegei ran an average 60.43 per lap and 4:03 per mile. Back home in Uganda he trains on a grass track as his country has only one (1) 400m tartan track.
So what’s the second longest standing distance world record? The aforementioned Bekele holds it at 10,000m after running 26:17 in Brussels, Belgium in August 2005.
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