Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei smashed the men's 10,000m world record as Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey broke that of the women's 5,000m in Valencia. Here we bring you his full biography and everything you need to know about the Police Officer running around the world breaking records.
Cheptegei, 24 years old clocked 26 minutes 11.00 seconds to beat Kenenisa Bekele's 15-year-old time by more than six seconds. Joshua Cheptegei's success marks his fourth world record in 10 months, having broken the 10km road best in December and the 5km road record in February.
At the Monaco Diamond League in August, he broke another of Bekele's world records, beating his 16-year-old mark in the 5,000m by two seconds. The World Record Day, in which both Cheptegei and Gidey had pacemakers, took place at Valencia's Turia stadium with 400 people present.
Who is Joshua Cheptegei? His Biography:
Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei born 12th September 1996 is a Ugandan long-distance runner and 10,000m world record holder with a time of 26:11.00. He broke the 10,000 metres record on October 7, 2020. In 2017 he became the silver medalist in the 10,000 metres event at the World Championship in London. In 2018, he set a world record for the 15 km road race and became the cross country world champion in 2019.
That year at the World Championships in Doha, he won a gold medal in the 10,000 metres men's final. In 2020, at a road race in Monaco, he set a new world road 5 km record of 12:51, breaking through the event's 13-minute barrier, taking 9 seconds from the previous best time of 13:00, set by Kenya's Sammy Kipketer in 2000. In August 2020, at the Monaco Diamond League meet, he set a new 5000 metres world record of 12:35.36, breaking Kenenisa Bekele's 16-year-old world record of 12:37.35 set in Hengelo.
Watch the Video Below about Joshua's Life:
Cheptegei was in Kapsewui, Kapchorwa District in Uganda and in his primary school, Joshua first played football and tried out the long jump and triple jump but switched to running when he discovered his talent in distance running.
Cheptegei studied languages and literature in Kampala for two years, and was later on employed by the Uganda National Police Force. His coach is Addy Ruiter and in the timeframe from March to May 2020 he reduced his weekly training sessions from 12 to 8.
Cheptegei was the winner of the senior men's race at the 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. He won in 31:40 on the 10.24 km course. Ugandan teammate Jacob Kiplimo finished second in 31:44, while Thomas Ayeko placed seventh, and Josehp Ayeko tenth; Uganda won the team first-place title.
World records:
On 1 December 2019, he set a new 10 km road race record in Valencia, Spain. His time of 26:38 improved on the previous world record, set by Leonard Komon in 2010, by 6 seconds.
On 16 February 2020, he set a new 5 km road race world record in Monaco with a time of 12:51. The previous record was 13:22 set by Robert Keter on 9 November 2019 in Lille, France.
On 13 August 2020, a day before the Herculis meet of the Diamond League in Monaco, Cheptegei announced that he aimed to return to the track and run his first official race in the season with a world record time in the 5000 metres, which would be more than 20 seconds faster than his personal best on a track. At the meet next day, with the help of expert pace-making from Roy Hoornweg, Stephen Kissa, and Matthew Ramsden, he set a new world record in the 5000 metres with a time of 12:35.36, which broke Kenenisa Bekele's 16-year-old record – the longest duration in the history of the event – by almost 2 seconds. His splits were 2:31,87; 5:03,77; 7:35,14 and 10:05,46. Bekele congratulated Cheptegei from Addis Abebe.
