Cheptegei starts year with great Monaco win

📌 MONACO RESULT
✳#5kHerculis
1. Joshua Cheptegei 🇺🇬 13:13
2. Bethwell Birgen 🇰🇪13:18
3. Davis Kiplangat 🇰🇪 13:19

Women

1. Beatrice Chepkoech 🇰🇪 14:43 WR
2. Meraf Bahta 15:46
3. Alice Finot 🇫🇷 15:522

Monaco, Principality of Monaco | THE INDEPENDENT | The annual Monaco Herculis run produced another world record today, but not for Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei.

Cheptegei retained his Monaco Run title with a time of 13:13, far short of his 12 minutes 51 seconds world record he set last year.

Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech broke the 5km road race  world record with a time of 14:43

According to the IAAF, the performance by the 29-year-old Kenyan bettered the previous record in a mixed gender race of 14:48 set by Caroline Kipkirui in 2018, and is also one second faster than Sifan Hassan’s 14:44 record for a women’s-only race, until this morning the fastest time ever produced over the distance since the 5km was introduced as a world record event in November 2017.

Grateful to start 2021 with a win, not yet time enough to run faster, as Monaco is usually a place of breaking barriers. #Silverback 🦍 wins it all! #JoshuaCheptegeiForUganda #VisitUganda #nikerunning @NNRunningTeam

Thanks for hosting this event @MeetingHerculis pic.twitter.com/To1g2KVhQV

— Joshua Cheptegei 🇺🇬🇺🇬 🥇🥇 (@joshuacheptege1) February 14, 2021

Cheptegei starts year strongly

“It was a good race, but the wind was incredibly difficult to break, ” Cheptegei said after the race.

The Ugandan 5,000m and 10,000m world record holder made the most of cold conditions in the third edition, to retain his title.

There is no doubt Joshua Cheptegei loves Monaco. Monaco was the venue of two historic runs for the 24-year-old in 2020, a year mainly lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his two visits last year, he set the world 5K record in February before world travel and sport was shutdown because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Cheptegei is only the tenth man in history to hold the 5,000 m and 10,000 m world records concurrently. He is also the reigning World cross country champion.

Cheptegei in 2021 

How Cheptegei run in 2020