Athletics: world records for Letesenbet Gidey (5,000) and Joshua Cheptegei (10,000m)

The Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey and the Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei made athletic history on October 7, 2020 in Valencia (Spain), with the respective world records of the 5,000m women and the 10,000m men.

JOSE JORDAN / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

Letesenbet Gidey and Joshua Cheptegei signed two remarkable performances in athletics, this October 7, 2020 in Valencia.

With a time of 14 minutes, 6 seconds and 62 hundredths, the Ethiopian broke the world record of 5,000 m held by her compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba since 2008. The Ugandan, him, erased the reference established in 2005 by the Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele over 10,000 meters, with a time of 26 minutes and 11 seconds.

All the conditions were met to allow these exploits.

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Here are two performances, carried out the same evening in Valencia in Spain, which will cause talk.

On October 7, 2020, the Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey and the Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei respectively broke the world records in the women's 5,000 meters and the men's 10,000 meters.

Gidey and Cheptegei have in passing erased the references of two athletics legends from Ethiopia: Tirunesh Dibaba and Kenenisa Bekele.

The biggest surprise came from Gidey, a young cross-country skier still far from having the reputation of her glorious elder.

At 22, the double world junior cross champion (2015, 2017) has indeed waltzed the record set in 2008 by Dibaba, 14 minutes, 11 seconds and 15 hundredths.

His time in Valence: 14 minutes, 6 seconds and 62 hundredths.

Joshua Cheptegei is more of a regular at exploits.

He had already dispossessed Bekele of his world record in the 5,000 meters.

This time, he successfully tackled his stopwatch achieved in 2005 (26 minutes, 17 seconds and 53 hundredths) by covering 10,000 meters in 26 minutes and 11 seconds.

Optimal conditions

All the conditions were, however, met to allow Cheptegei and Gidey to mark the history of long-distance running: very high level hares and a light system giving the tempo along the track, already experienced this year at the meetings of Oslo, Monaco and Brussels.

All in a very pleasant temperature (nearly 23 °).

The event was also organized by their management company (Global Sports Communication).

The two East African athletes may also have taken advantage of new tips produced by the equipment manufacturer Nike.

These "magic shoes" have a reputation for greatly improving performance.

The International Athletics Federation (World Athletics), hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and lacking in competitions to highlight, was in any case hastened to salute these feats.

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