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Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, world 10,000m record holder (26:11.00), will attempt the 3000m record today at the Golden Strike Meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Kenyan, Daniel Komen, currently holds the record with his 1996 performance of 7:20.67. One year later, he set the 5000m world record at 12:39.74, which was improved the following year by Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie at 12:39.36. Fellow Ethiopian, Kenenisa Bekele, improved the record to 12:37.35 in 2004, which was improved last year to 12:35.36 in Monaco by Cheptegei.
Cheptegei also currently holds the 5K world road record at 12:51 from Monaco 2020. Additionally, he has run the world best time for the 15K road race at 41:05. Kenyan, Geoffrey Kamworor, shares the best time, however, did so en route in the Copenhagen Half Marathon in Sept. 2019.
It is expected that Cheptegei will go after the half-marathon world record soon. He has run as fast as 59:21. However, the record is nearly two minutes faster at 57:32 as set by Kenyan, Kibiwott Kandie, in Dec. 2020 in Valencia.
The 3000m distance for Cheptegei is also an exercise in testing his – according to him – speed, as he will be going after the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games in his favourite event, the 10,000m, which start on July 23.