Joshua Cheptegei has broken the 5km road race world record at the Monaco Run in France.
He clocked 12 minutes 51 seconds on Sunday. Cheptegei went for this run with a personal best of 12 minutes 57 seconds.
The new milestone for Cheptegei comes days after Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto set the 5km world record at 13 minutes 18 seconds in December 2019 at the city of Valencia.
Cheptegei who also participated in the same race clocked 13 minutes 24 seconds.
However, it was at the same event where the 23-year-old Cheptegei broke the 10,000m world record when he clocked 26 minutes 38 seconds.
Last year, he won World Cross country gold medal and the 5,000m Diamond League trophy. He also 10,000m race at World Championships held in October at Doha.
As the current world record holder for 5km and 10km, Cheptegei is among the over 20 runners Uganda is banking on to clinch medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics slated for July-August.
Cheptegei is also the only other Uganda to break the world record in Athletics after John Akii-Bua.
Akii-Bua in under 48 second broke the 400m hurdles world record at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He clocked 47 seconds 82 microseconds.
The News Editor ,Reporter at Kagadi Kibaale community Radio
