Joshua Cheptegei
Cheptegei at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene
Personal information
Full nameJoshua Kiprui Cheptegei
Born (1996-09-12) 12 September 1996 (age 27)
Kapsewui, Kapchorwa District,[1] Uganda
Height1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)[2]
Weight52 kg (115 lb)[2]
Sport
CountryUganda
SportAthletics
EventLong-distance running
TeamNN Running Team
Coached byAddy Ruiter[1]
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals
  • 2016 Rio de Janeiro
  • 10,000 m, 6th
  • 5000 m, 8th
  • 2020 Tokyo
  • 10,000 m,  Silver
  • 5000 m,  Gold
World finals
  • 2015 Beijing
  • 10,000 m, 9th
  • 2017 London
  • 10,000 m,  Silver
  • 2019 Doha
  • 10,000 m,  Gold
  • 2022 Eugene
  • 10,000 m,  Gold
  • 5000 m, 9th
  • 2023 Budapest
  • 10,000 m,  Gold
Highest world ranking1st (10,000 m, 2023)[3]
Personal bests
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  Uganda
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2020 Tokyo 5000 m
Silver medal – second place 2020 Tokyo 10,000 m
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2019 Doha 10,000 m
Gold medal – first place 2022 Eugene 10,000 m
Gold medal – first place 2023 Budapest 10,000 m
Silver medal – second place 2017 London 10,000 m
Diamond League
First place 2019 5000 m
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2018 Gold Coast 5000 m
Gold medal – first place 2018 Gold Coast 10,000 m
World Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place 2014 Eugene 10,000 m
World Cross Country Championships
Gold medal – first place 2019 Aarhus Senior race
Gold medal – first place 2019 Aarhus Senior team
Bronze medal – third place 2023 Bathurst Senior race
Bronze medal – third place 2023 Bathurst Senior team

Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei (born 12 September 1996) is a Ugandan long-distance runner. Cheptegei is the current world record holder for the 5000 metres and the 10,000 metres, and holds the world best time over the 15 kilometres distance. Cheptegei is the reigning Olympic champion in the 5000 m and the reigning three-time World champion in the 10,000 m. Cheptegei also won a gold medal in the 5000 m and 10,000 m at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and at the 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

Cheptegei is the tenth man in history to hold 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 languages and literature in Kampala for two years[6] and is employed by the Uganda National Police.[7] His coach is Addy Ruiter. In the timeframe from March to May 2020, he reduced his weekly training sessions from 12 to 8.[8]

Career

Cheptegei (L in yellow) races the 5000 m at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he finished eighth.

He is a silver medallist in the 10,000 metres at the 2017 World Championships in London.[9] He also competed in the 10,000 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, finishing ninth.[10] He ran at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres, finishing eighth and sixth respectively.[11][12] Cheptegei was the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres champion at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.[13] He won silver in the 10,000 metres and gold in the 5,000 metres at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

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.[14] Abrar Osman finished second with 42:34 and the 2017 5000 m world champion Muktar Edris placed third with 42:56.[15] 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.[16]

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.[17]

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.[18] 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.[19]

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.[20]

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.[21] 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.[22][23] His splits were 2:31.87; 5:03.77; 7:35.14 and 10:05.46. Bekele congratulated Cheptegei from Addis Ababa.[8]

On 7 October 2020, in Valencia, he set a world record time of 26:11.00 in the 10,000 metres, which improved on Kenenisa Bekele's 15-year-old record by more than 6 seconds.[24]

Achievements

Cheptegei (C) with his gold for the 10,000 m at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene.

International competitions

Representing  Uganda
Year Competition Venue Position Event Time
2014 World Junior Championships Eugene, OR, United States 4th 5000 m 13:32.84[25]
1st 10,000 m 28:32.86[26]
African Championships Marrakech, Morocco – 10,000 m DNF[27]
2015 African Junior Championships Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 1st 10,000 m 29:58.70[28]
World Championships Beijing, China 9th 10,000 m 27:48.89[10]
2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 8th 5000 m 13:09.17[11]
6th 10,000 m 27:10.06 SB[12]
2017 World Cross Country Championships Kampala, Uganda 30th Senior race 30:08[29]
World Championships London, United Kingdom 2nd 10,000 m 26:49.94 SB[30]
2018 Commonwealth Games Gold Coast, Australia 1st 5000 m 13:50.83 SB[31]
1st 10,000 m 27:19.62 GR[32]
2019 World Cross Country Championships Aarhus, Denmark 1st Senior race 31:40[33]
1st Senior team 20 pts
World Championships Doha, Qatar 1st 10,000 m 26:48.36 WL[34]
2021 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 1st 5,000 m 12:58.15
2nd 10,000 m 27:43.63
2022 World Championships Eugene, OR, United States 9th 5,000 m 13:13.12
1st 10,000 m 27:27.43
2023 World Cross Country Championships Bathurst, Australia 3rd Senior race 29:37
3rd Team 37 pts
World Championships Budapest, Hungary 1st 10,000 m 27:51.42

Circuit wins and titles

References

  1. ^ a b c d Joshua Cheptegei Archived 19 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine. GC2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Joshua Cheptegei". eurosport.com. Archived from the original on 20 August 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  3. ^ https://worldathletics.org/world-rankings/10000m/men?regionType=world&page=1&rankDate=2023-12-26
  4. ^ "Joshua Cheptegei Clocks new 10000m World Record with 26:11.02 | Watch Athletics". www.watchathletics.com. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
  5. ^ "Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei". IAAF. 23 August 2015. Archived from the original on 25 August 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  6. ^ "Cheptegei overlaps number two to win 10000m gold". monitor.co.ug. 19 December 2014. Archived from the original on 15 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  7. ^ "Police Consider Promoting Medalist Cheptegei, Colleagues after Winning Gold". kampalapost.com. 9 April 2018. Archived from the original on 15 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  8. ^ a b Reinsch, Michael (17 August 2020). "Virtuelles Duell und Fake-Applaus". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
  9. ^ "10,000 Metres men". IAAF. 4 August 2017. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
  10. ^ a b "10,000 Metres Men - Final" (PDF). IAAF. 22 August 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  11. ^ a b "5,000 Metres men". IAAF. 20 August 2016. Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Report: men's 10,000m final – Rio 2016 Olympic Games". IAAF. 14 August 2016. Archived from the original on 15 August 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  13. ^ "Athletics official results" (PDF). Goald Coast 2018. pp. 45, 49. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  14. ^ Krol, Maarten & van Hemert, Wim (20 April 2019). Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km Archived 18 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved on 20 April 2019.
  15. ^ "Road round-up: Cheptegei clocks 15km world best in Nijmegen, Melese breaks Shanghai Marathon course record| News | iaaf.org". iaaf.org. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  16. ^ "Kiplimo and Gebrzihair break course records in Ras Al Khaimah | REPORTS | World Athletics". www.worldathletics.org. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  17. ^ "men senior final | iaaf.org". iaaf.org. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  18. ^ "Joshua Cheptegei breaks 10km road world record in Valencia". 1 December 2019. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  19. ^ "Kipruto breaks world 10km record in Valencia". World Athletics. 12 January 2020.
  20. ^ "Joshua Cheptegei smashes 5km road world record in Monaco". BBC Sport. 16 February 2020. Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  21. ^ "Ugandan athlete Joshua Cheptegei aims to return with a world record". BBC Sport. 13 August 2020. Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  22. ^ "Cheptegei smashes 5,000 metres world record at Monaco Diamond League". Eurosport. 14 August 2020. Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  23. ^ "Diamond League Monaco: Joshua Cheptegei breaks 5,000m world record". BBC Sport. 14 August 2020. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  24. ^ "Joshua Cheptegei smashes 10,000m world record as Letesenbet Gidey sets new women's 5,000m best". BBC Sport. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  25. ^ 5000 Metres men – Results Archived 20 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. 25 July 2014.
  26. ^ 10,000 Metres men – Results Archived 20 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. 22 July 2014.
  27. ^ "10,000 Metres men – Results" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  28. ^ CAA 12th African Junior Athletics Championships – Results Archived 16 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine, p. 39.
  29. ^ Results - IAAF World Cross Country Championships 2016 - Kampala, (Uganda) 26 MAR 2017 - Senior Race - men, IAAF, 26 March 2017, archived from the original on 4 May 2019, retrieved 15 August 2020
  30. ^ "10,000 Metres Men − Final − Results" (PDF). IAAF. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  31. ^ "Athletics official results" (PDF). Goald Coast 2018. p. 45. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  32. ^ "Athletics official results" (PDF). Goald Coast 2018. p. 49. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  33. ^ "SENIOR RACE MEN - IAAF WORLD CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS AARHUS 2019". 30 March 2019. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  34. ^ 10,000 Metres men - Results Archived 7 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine.
  35. ^ "Wanda Diamond League Final | Brussels (BEL) | 5th-6th Sept 2019" (PDF). Diamond League. 6 September 2019. p. 1. Retrieved 1 January 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei.
Records Preceded by Kenenisa Bekele Men's 5000 m World Record Holder 14 August 2020 – Succeeded byIncumbent Preceded by Kenenisa Bekele Men's 10,000 m World Record Holder 7 October 2020 – Succeeded byIncumbent
Olympic champions in men's 5000 metres
World champions in men's 10,000 metres
World Athletics Senior Men's World Cross Country champions
Diamond League champions in men's 5000 metres
World U20 Champions in men's 10,000 metres
Commonwealth Games champions in men's 5000 metres
Commonwealth Games champions in men's 10,000 metres
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