01 January 2022 | Athletics

World and Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei will have to look forward to probably staving off a fresh challenge in Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi after he broke the 5km World record in Barcelona on Friday.

The record of 12:51 was previously owned by Cheptegei - set in 2020, at a road race in Monaco when he also shaved off 9 seconds from Kenya's Sammy Kipketer 13:00 milestone ran in 2000.

However, Aregawi ran 12:49, taking two seconds off Cheptegei’s world record to become the new owner at the Cursa dels Nassos 5K.

The Diamond League 5000m champion had a pacemaker for company for the first kilometre in the race before racing the rest of it on his own, Kenyan Peter Maru finishing a distant second in 13:30.

Last month he had nearly broken Cheptegei's world record in Lille but wasn't successful. This time round, he joined the table of men as the hot prospect in the field with the 2024 Paris Olympics beckoning.

Ejegayehu Taye broke the women's record with a time of 14 minutes and 19 seconds, taking nearly half a minute off the mixed race record, and beating Sweden's Meraf Bahta, who came in second with a time of 15:04.

Leading results

Women
1 Ejegayehu Taye (ETH) 14:19
2 Meraf Bahta (SWE) 15:04
3 Carla Dominguez (ESP) 15:51
4 Meritxell Soler (ESP) 16:02
5 Naima Ait Alibou (ESP) 16:52

Men
1 Berihu Aregawi (ETH) 12:49
2 Peter Maru (KEN) 13:30
3 Mike Foppen (NED) 13:37
4 Mehdi Belhadj (FRA) 13:38
5 Santiago Catrofe (URU) 13:39

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