World records set over the past seven months by Kenyans Faith Kipyegon, Beatrice Chebet, and Agnes Jebet Ngetich, as well as Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Mondo Duplantis, Mykolas Alekna have now been ratified by World Athletics.
Chebet brought her 2023 season to a close in memorable fashion on 31 December, winning over 5km on the roads in Barcelona in 14:13. The world cross-country champion took 16 seconds off the women-only world record set by Senbere Teferi in Herzogenaurach on 12 September 2021.
Just two weeks later in Valencia, Chebet’s fellow Kenyan Agnes Jebet Ngetich produced a similar stunning performance on the roads, clocking 28:46 over 10km in a mixed race. Her half-way split of 14:13 was also a world record.
Ngetich took 28 seconds off the previous world 10km record set by Yalemzerf Yehualaw in Castellon on 27 February 2022, while her 5km mark was a six-second improvement on Ejgayehu Taye’s world record, set in Barcelona on 31 December 2021.
Faith Kipyegon is another Olympic champion who recently improved on her own world record. The Kenyan middle-distance runner clocked 3:49.04 over 1500m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris, taking 0.07 off the record she set in Florence on 2 June 2023.
Mykolas Alekna turned heads at the start of the outdoor season earlier this year when he threw 74.35m to win the discus at the Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational in Ramona. In so doing, the 21-year-old broke the long-standing world record set by East Germany’s Jurgen Schult on 6 June 1986.
Just six days later, another men’s field event world record fell, this time to Mondo Duplantis. The world and Olympic champion won the pole vault at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Xiamen with 6.24m, adding a centimetre to the record he set at the Diamond League Final in Eugene last year.
At the US Olympic Trials in June, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone clocked a world 400m hurdles record of 50.65, shaving 0.03 off the record she set when winning the world title on 22 July 2022. It was her fifth world record in the discipline and her fourth set at Eugene’s Hayward Field.
McLaughlin-Levrone, Duplantis, Kipyegon, Chebet and Alekna will all be in action at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games from 1-11 August.
At a Glance:
Women’s world 5km record (women-only)
14:13 Beatrice Chebet (KEN) Barcelona, 31 December 2023
Women’s world 1500m record
3:49.04 Faith Kipyegon (KEN) Paris, 7 July 2024
Women’s world 5km record (mixed)
14:13 Agnes Jebet Ngetich (KEN) Valencia, 14 January 2024
Women’s world 10km record (mixed)
28:46 Agnes Jebet Ngetich (KEN) Valencia, 14 January 2024
Men’s world discus record
74.35m Mykolas Alekna (LTU) Ramona, 14 April 2024
Men’s world pole vault record
6.24m Mondo Duplantis (SWE) Xiamen, 20 April 2024
Women’s world 400m hurdles record
50.65 Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) Eugene, 30 June 2024
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