New world record in women’s 5km road race

The world of road races closed 2024 in style with Kenyan runner Beatrice Chebet rewriting the world record for the women’s 5km race.

She clocked an impressive 13 minutes and 54 seconds at the Cursa del Nassos, a World Athletics Label road race held in Barcelona, Spain on December 31. “ In doing so, the 24-year old Kenyan bettered the previous record by 19 seconds,’’ a report on the website of World Athletics said. The new record is subject to the usual ratification process. Chebet’s achievement of December 31 makes her the first woman to go sub-14 minutes for the distance on any surface – road or track. Chebet is the reigning Olympic champion in the women’s 5000m and 10,000m.

Chebet is expected in India in mid-February 2025, when she would be participating in the first edition of the SFC Global 10K in Navi Mumbai.

(The author, Shyam G Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai)