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Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi and Ejegayehu Taye both broke the world 5K road records on Friday, December 31, while competing in the flat, point-to-point course at Cursa dels Nassos in Barcelona. They ran 12:49 and 14:19 respectively.
Aregawi broke Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei’s world road record of 12:51 that was set in Monaco in 2020.
timesofindia: RT @toisports: #Athletics #BerihuAregawi, #EjegayehuTaye smash 5km world records in Barcelona
— X Æ A-12 (@CyberAnonymous) January 1, 2022
Ethiopia's #Aregawi and #Taye ended 2021 on a high when they broke the men's and women's 5km world records at the Cursa dels Nassos
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Aregawi, just 20-years-old, finished fourth in the Tokyo Olympic Games 10,000m. He owns a 10,000m best of 26:50.37 from Hengelo 2021. Aregawi also owns a 5000m best of 13:08.91 from when he was just 19. After his Cursa dels Nassos performance, there is no doubt that he will be greatly improving his 5000m time.
Cheptegei is the current world record holder with his performance of 12:35.36 from his August 2020 Monaco Diamond League meet performance. While 13:08.91 is fast there have been 1284 faster performances.
Taye, just 21 herself, has run the sixth-fastest 5000m in history, also at Hengelo 2021 in the time of 14:14.09. Look for that performance to come down in 2022. Fellow Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey set the current world record at 14:06.62 in Valencia in 2020.
Taye took down Kenyan Beatrice Chepkoech’s record from her Feb. 2021 performance in Monaco at 14:43.
In Paris, last summer Taye broke the national 3000m record with her performance of 8:19.52. The world record from China’s Wang Junxia continues to stand at 8:06.11. Junxia is an admitted doper from the days of coach Ma Junren who has long been suspected of facilitating doping with his “Ma’s Army” of athletes.
