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The best reactions to Joshua Cheptegei’s world record watch-pause

Cheptegei exemplifies the "If it's not on Strava, it didn't happen" mentality

Joshua Cheptegei 2022 World Champs

On Friday at the Monaco Diamond League, Joshua Cheptegei set the world record over 5,000m, running a 12:35.36 to break the former record held by Kenenisa Bekele at 12:37.35. His run was extremely impressive, clicking off shockingly even splits to just slide in under the previous record and etch his name in history. However, after he crossed the line in world record time, he raised his wrist to reveal a Garmin watch, which he stopped before resuming his finish line photos. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD4-7OlHJBz/

Few track runners wear a watch when they’re racing, since meets like this have extremely sophisticated timing systems, guard-rail pacing and literal pacers, not to mention poor GPS signals in a stadium and splits every 200m – just to name a few reasons. And who runs a world record and has the brain capacity to remember that they were wearing a watch and they should stop it? Wouldn’t the pure elation take over? It turns out, not in Cheptegei’s world. Here are some of the best Twitter reactions to one of the strangest world record track finishes ever. 

RELATED: Joshua Cheptegei breaks 5,000m world record

The fake Strava file

Big kudos to Chris Chavez who, in honour of the end-of-race watch pause, made a fake Strava post for the new world record-holder. Also, even bigger kudos for calling it ‘Afternoon Run’ like only a true legend (or a parent whose child made their Strava account) can. 

Did he write down official time or watch time in his training log?

As Olympic track runner Nick Willis points out, Cheptegei was a little late hitting pause on his watch. Do you think he logged his official time or the time on his watch (because, according to many runners, there’s nothing more official than the watch). It’s like when runners complain that the certified marathon course was long or short according to their watch.

He’ll have to check out his training adaptations 

Stop your watch exactly 10 seconds later for perfect finisher’s photos

If you’ve got to wear a watch when you race, this genius tweeter recommends waiting exactly 10 seconds after you finish so that your post-race pics are perfect. 

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