Kenyan runner breaks women’s 5K and 10K world records in same race

The 22-year-old Kenyan phenomenon, Agnes Ngetich, left the athletics world in awe over the weekend at the Transylvania 10K in Brasov, Romania, where she broke both the women-only 5K and 10K world records in a single race.

Ngetich took victory in the 10K with a sensational time of 29 minutes and 24 seconds. What’s even more incredible is her blistering pace as she blazed through the halfway mark in an astounding 14 minutes and 25 seconds, surpassing Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi’s women-only record from 2021 by an impressive four seconds.

One day. TWO world records in Brasov💥

Agnes Ngetich rewrites the history books, clocking in at 14:25 for the women’s only 5k and 29:24 in the 10k to crush ALL records set before her. 👏

👟 Adizero Takumi Sen 9 #ImpossibleIsNothing #Adizero pic.twitter.com/pTYws4B6AJ

— adidas Running (@adidasrunning) September 10, 2023

The 10K race started with an electrifying pace as Ngetich took charge right from the beginning. She covered the first mile in a swift four minutes and 30 seconds, equivalent to a 14:00-flat 5K pace, distancing herself from the pacers early on. Chasing her in the initial mile were her compatriot Catherine Reline and Uganda’s Joy Cheptoyek. However, the two started to lose ground around the 3K mark. From that point on, Ngetich was on a solo mission, recording a positive split of 14:25 in the first half and 14:59 in the final five kilometres, and securing victory with a staggering 50-second lead.

Ngetich’s exceptional performance in a women-only race not only surpasses the previous record of 30:01, set by the late Agnes Tirop in Herzogenaurach, Germany, in 2021 but also ranks as the second-fastest time ever recorded by a woman. It stands only behind Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw’s 29:14 run in a mixed race in Castellon, Spain, last year. Yehualaw also clocked a time of 29:19 earlier this year in Valencia.

This isn’t Ngetich’s first triumph on the world stage. At the 2023 World Cross Country Championships in Australia, Ngetich won bronze after Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey fell in the final 100m of the women’s 10K, helping Kenya win gold in the team classification. Ngetich will be a name to watch when she eventually steps up to the half-marathon and marathon distances.