MONACO: Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei shattered the 5km road world record in Monaco on Sunday, shaving 27 seconds off the mark set by Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto last month.

Cheptegei, the 10,000m world champion, crossed the finish line in 12 minutes and 51 seconds in his first race of the year to eclipse Kipruto’s effort from the 10K Valencia Ibercaja in Spain last month.

Kipruto had set the mark en route to the 10km road world record and Cheptegei revealed he had set out to “really go for” breaking the sub 13 minutes barrier.

“Wow, this is really great. I had sub 13 minutes in my mind today so when my legs felt good during the race, I really decided to go for it,” the 23-year-old 10,000m world champion said.

“To take this many seconds off the record makes me very happy and is a great first test for me in an important season,” he said with the Tokyo Olympics coming up in July.

Cheptegei took part in both the 5000m and 10000m at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games coming eighth and sixth respectively at the age of 19.

Frenchman Jimmy Gressier finished second in Monaco with a time of 13:18 to beat the European record of 13:29 set by Julien Wanders in the same race last year.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2020