Ugandan long distance runner Joshua Cheptegei on Wednesday night posted a winning time of 26:11.02 at NN Valencia World Record Day to break the 10,000m world record.
The 15-year old record had been held by Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele with a winning time of 26:17.53. Cheptegei, 25 then breaks the record by about six seconds.
Before the race, the assigned 5km split time for the pacers was set at 13 minutes, seven seconds, with the projected finish for Chetegei set at 26:15. However, Cheptegei came four seconds better.
Bekele’s previous world record time had been the longest standing men’s 10,000m world record in history.
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.
At the same event, Ethiopian female runner Letesenbet Gidey smashed the women’s 5000m record.
Gidey, 22, clocked 14 minutes 6.62 seconds to better the 14mins 11.15secs set by Tirunesh Dibaba in 2008.
