Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei (born 12 September 1996) is a Ugandan long-distance runner. He 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.
Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei |
Born | Kapsewui, Kapchorwa District,[1] Uganda | 12 September 1996
Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[2] |
Weight | 61 kg (134 lb)[3] |
Sport | |
Country | Uganda |
Sport | Athletics |
Event | Long-distance running |
Team | NN Running Team |
Coached by | Addy Ruiter[1] |
Achievements and titles | |
Olympic finals |
|
World finals |
|
Highest world ranking | 1st (10,000 m, 2023)[4] |
Personal bests |
|
Medal record |
Cheptegei is the reigning Olympic champion in the 10000 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. At the 2024 Olympic Games, Cheptegei won gold in the 10,000 metres, becoming the Olympic champion and setting a new Olympic record in the process.[5]
Cheptegei is the tenth man in history to hold the 5000 m and 10,000 m world records concurrently, both set in 2020.[6][7]
Early life
editJoshua 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 he switched to running when he discovered his talent in distance running.[1]
Cheptegei studied procurement and logistics management in Uganda and is employed by the Uganda National Police.[8] His coach is Addy Ruiter. In the timeframe from March to May 2020, he reduced his weekly training sessions from 12 to 8.[9]
Career
edit2015–2019: Career beginnings
editCheptegei 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] He is a silver medallist in the 10,000 metres at the 2017 World Championships in London.[13] Cheptegei was the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres champion at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.[14]
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.[15] Abrar Osman finished second with 42:34 and the 2017 5000 m world champion Muktar Edris placed third with 42:56.[16] 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.[17]
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.[18]
2019–2020: World records
editOn 1 December 2019, Cheptegei 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.[19] 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.[20]
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.[21]
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.[22] 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.[23][24] His splits were 2:31.87; 5:03.77; 7:35.14 and 10:05.46. Bekele congratulated Cheptegei from Addis Ababa.[9]
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.[25]
2021–present: Olympic medals
editCheptegei won gold in the 5,000 metres and silver in the 10,000 metres at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[26]
At the 2022 World Athletics Championships, Cheptegei won the 10,000 metres[27] and placed ninth in the 5,000 metres.
At the 2023 World Athletics Cross Country Championships, Cheptegei placed 3rd to his countryman Jacob Kiplimo and Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi.[28] Cheptegei successfully defended his 10,000 metres title at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.[29] Later that year, he made his marathon debut at the Valencia Marathon, running 2:08:59 to place 37th.[30]
At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Cheptegei won gold in the 10,000 metres final, in a new Olympic record of 26:43.14.[31] The former Olympic record was Kenenisa Bekele's 27:01.17 set at the 2008 Games in Beijing.[32] Shortly after winning gold in the 10000 meter event, Cheptegei announced on Instagram that he would not be defending his 5000 meter gold medal from Tokyo, citing failure to recover from the race.[33] Cheptegei also hinted that he will not pursue another Olympic Games on the track, and instead focus more on road racing in the future.[34]
Achievements
editInternational competitions
editCircuit wins and titles
edit- Diamond League 5000 metres champion: 2019[45]
- 2019: Eugene Prefontaine Classic in Stanford (Two miles, WL PB), Zürich Weltklasse (5000 m, PB)
- 2020: Monaco Herculis (5000 m, WR)
- 2021: Eugene (Two miles)
- 2022: Eugene (5000 m)
Track records
editAs of 22 September 2024, Cheptegei holds the following track records.
Distance (metres) |
Location | Time | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 mile | Palo Alto | 8:07.54 | 30/06/2019 | Ugandan record |
5 000 | Monaco | 12:35.36 | 14/08/2020 | WR |
5 000 | Tokyo | 12:58.15 | 06/08/2021 | Olympic final |
10 000 | Doha | 26:48.36 | 06/10/2019 | |
10 000 | Gold Coast | 27:19.62 | 13/04/2018 | |
10 000 | Stade de France, Paris | 26:43.14 | 02/08/2024 | Olympic record |
10 000 | Valencia | 26:11.00 | 07/10/2020 | WR |
References
edit- ^ a b c d Joshua Cheptegei Archived 19 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine. GC2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
- ^ "CHEPTEGEI Joshua". Paris 2024 Olympics. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
- ^ "Tilastopaja Oy Track and field statistics | Joshua Cheptegei". Tilastopaja.eu. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
- ^ "World Rankings | Men's 10,000m (10km)".
- ^ "Men's 10,000m Final Results". olympics.com. 2 August 2024.
- ^ "Joshua Cheptegei Clocks new 10000m World Record with 26:11.02 | Watch Athletics". www.watchathletics.com. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
- ^ "Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei". IAAF. 23 August 2015. Archived from the original on 25 August 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
- ^ "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.
- ^ a b Reinsch, Michael (17 August 2020). "Virtuelles Duell und Fake-Applaus". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b "5,000 Metres men". IAAF. 20 August 2016. Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "10,000 Metres men". IAAF. 4 August 2017. Archived from the original on 5 August 2017. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
- ^ "Athletics official results" (PDF). Goald Coast 2018. pp. 45, 49. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Kiplimo and Gebrzihair break course records in Ras Al Khaimah | REPORTS | World Athletics". www.worldathletics.org. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
- ^ "men senior final | iaaf.org". iaaf.org. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
- ^ "Joshua Cheptegei breaks 10km road world record in Valencia". 1 December 2019. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
- ^ "Kipruto breaks world 10km record in Valencia". World Athletics. 12 January 2020.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Joshua Cheptegei smashes 10,000m world record as Letesenbet Gidey sets new women's 5,000m best". BBC Sport. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
- ^ "Tokyo Olympics: Uganda and Kenya win golds in athletics as Egypt claim karate bronze". BBC Sport. 6 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
- ^ "Joshua Cheptegei Wins World Athletics 10,000-Meter Championship". Runners World. 17 July 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
- ^ "Kiplimo succeeds compatriot Cheptegei as world cross-country champion in Bathurst". World Athletics. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
- ^ "Cheptegei wins third successive 10,000m gold". Rueters. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
- ^ "Joshua Cheptegei Struggles On Marathon Debut in Valencia". Sports Nation. 3 December 2023. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
- ^ "Cheptegei holds off Ethiopian trio to win Olympic 10,000m gold". France24. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
- ^ "Tactical masterclass from Joshua Cheptegei as he wins 10,000m gold in Paris". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
- ^ https://www.flotrack.org/articles/12767357-report-joshua-cheptegei-jacob-kiplimo-to-withdraw-from-olympic-5000m
- ^ https://swiftsportsug.com/2024/08/03/cheptegei-to-retire-from-track-and-field-athletics-after-paris-olympics/#
- ^ 5000 Metres men – Results Archived 20 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. 25 July 2014.
- ^ 10,000 Metres men – Results Archived 20 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. 22 July 2014.
- ^ "10,000 Metres men – Results" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
- ^ CAA 12th African Junior Athletics Championships – Results Archived 16 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine, p. 39.
- ^ 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
- ^ "10,000 Metres Men − Final − Results" (PDF). IAAF. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
- ^ "Athletics official results" (PDF). Goald Coast 2018. p. 45. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
- ^ "Athletics official results" (PDF). Goald Coast 2018. p. 49. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 10,000 Metres men - Results Archived 7 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "Wanda Diamond League Final | Brussels (BEL) | 5th-6th Sept 2019" (PDF). Diamond League. 6 September 2019. p. 1. Retrieved 1 January 2021.