Joshua Cheptegei shatters 5K world record by 27 seconds

Cheptegei ran 12:51 for 5K on Sunday morning in Monaco

Madeleine Kelly February 16, 2020

Joshua Cheptegei 0f Uganda shattered the 5K world record by 27 seconds on Sunday morning in Monaco, running a 12:51. The runner broke the record set by Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto only one month ago en route to his 10K world record.

Ugandan 🇺🇬 @JoshuaCheptege1 begins 2020 by breaking the 5K world record at the @MonacoRun in France 🇫🇷. He did it in a time of 12:49. Previous WR mark was at 13:29. The year’s ultimate goal is @Tokyo2020 Olympics. 🤙👌👏 pic.twitter.com/U9s2fgdmsn

— Darren Allan Kyeyune (@AllanDarren) February 16, 2020

On January 12, Kipruto set a new 10K world record, but his first 5K, which he ran in 13:18, was also technically a record-breaking mark. The Adidas athlete closed even faster, negative splitting the race to finish in 13:06 (although World Athletics said that time wasn’t ineligible for ratification). The previous 5K world record was held by Robert Keter at 13:22.

The 5K only became an official world record in November 2017.

Cheptegei’s time from Monaco is so fast it seems unreal. For some perspective, in 2019 no one ran faster on the track (12:52.98 was the best mark). The world record in the 5,000m is 12:37.35 held by Kenenisa Bekele, a time that was once unfathomably fast but could easily be broken by Cheptegei in the coming months.

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What an amazing year it is!!🔥🔥🔥 I finally become a world champion Thanks to the people who have been part of this amazing journey right from @worldcrosscountryaarhus2019 to @iaafdoha2019 Special thanks to my family, wife, training partners, #TeamUganda2019 @globalsportscommunication

A post shared by Joshua Cheptegei Kiprui 🇺🇬 (@joshuacheptegei) on Oct 6, 2019 at 8:32pm PDT

The runner told World Athletics post-race, “I had sub 13 minutes in my mind today so when my legs felt good during the race I decided to really go for it. To take this many seconds off the record makes me very happy and is a great first test for me in an important season.”

Second place went to France’s Jimmy Gressier in 13:18, a new European record, and third place to Nick Goolab who broke Mo Farah’s British record, running 13:27.