Cheptegei will seek the world record of 10,000 in Valencia

Ugandan athlete Joshua Chiptiji will try to break the record of 10,000 on October 7 during the Autonomous Distance Championship, to be organized by the Community Athletics Federation in Valencia at the Toria de Valencia Stadium.

The long-distance runner already, on August 14, at Luis II Stadium in Monaco, set the world record of 5,000 set by Keninas Bekele since 2004 and reduced it to 12: 35.36.

To repeat, he would have to cut the 26: 17.53 that Bekele personally signed in Brussels on August 26, 2005, more than fifteen years ago.

Cheptegei, an athlete from NN Running, ran in Valencia on December 1 and broke the world record of 10 km (26.38), although days later Rhonex Kipruto snatched him from him, leaving him at 26.24 also in the Valencian capital.

The 2019 World Cross and Track champion spent confinement in Kapchorwa, a mountain town in Uganda at an altitude of 1,800 meters, along with his family and Addy Reuter, the Dutch outlander who coached him for years.

After assuming the Tokyo Olympics were suspended, he set himself the goal of smashing both Bekele’s records.

The event is organized by the Correcaminos Sporting Association and FACV, along with the National-Nederlanden Running and promoting the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation through Valencia Ciudad del Running.

For Valencia, this would be his first world record on the outside track having scored others on the road (10 km and a half marathon) and on the indoor track, both of which were achieved in the European “ indoor spaces ” set up in Palau-Louis Puig in 1998.

In that tournament, Ukrainian Anzela Balakhonova made pole vault with a 4.45 jump, and Britain’s Ashia Hansen, the hat-trick, with a score of 15.16.

Cheptegei set out to dominate the track in the upcoming Olympic Games, with world records and titles, as well as fighting for 5,000 and 10,000 Olympic medals in Tokyo and then plans to jump into the marathon.