Cheptegei is the tenth man in history to hold the 5000 m and 10,000 m world records concurrently, both set in 2020.[4][5]
Early life
Joshua Cheptegei was born on 12 September 1996 in Kapsewui,
Kapchorwa District, Uganda.[1] In primary school, he first played football and tried out
long jump and
triple jump, but switched to running when he discovered his talent in distance running.[1]
Cheptegei studied procurement and logistics management at the University of Kisoro in Uganda and is employed by the
Uganda National Police.[6] His coach is Addy Ruiter. In the timeframe from March to May 2020, he reduced his weekly training sessions from 12 to 8.[7]
Cheptegei is a four-time winner of the
Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km road race in
Nijmegen, Netherlands. In 2018, he set the world record for a 15 km road race.[13] Abrar Osman finished second with 42:34 and the 2017 5000 m world champion Muktar Edris placed third with 42:56.[14] On 19 February 2022, the record was broken by Cheptegei's compatriot
Jacob Kiplimo, who ran a 15 km split of 40:43 min at the
Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon.[15]
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 Joseph Ayeko tenth; Uganda won the team first-place title.[16]
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.[17]
This mark has since been lowered to 26:24, the world record being held, as of October 2020, by
Rhonex Kipruto of Kenya, who also incidentally set it in Valencia just six weeks later, on 12 January 2020.[18]
On 16 February 2020, he set a new
5 km road race world record in
Monaco with a time of 12:51. The previous ratified record was 13:22, set by Robert Keter on 9 November 2019 in
Lille, France, and the previous fastest time ever recorded over the distance was 13:00 set by
Sammy Kipketer on 26 March 2000 in
Carlsbad, USA. This record stood for nearly two years until broken by
Berihu Aregawi, who ran 12:49 at the Cursa dels Nassos meet in
Barcelona on 31 December 2021.[19]
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.[20] At the meet on the 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.[21][22] His splits were 2:31.87; 5:03.77; 7:35.14 and 10:05.46. Bekele congratulated Cheptegei from Addis Ababa.[7]