I was looking forward to this event ever since Cheptegei broke the 5000 m world record. What I did not expect was that what was planned was a double assault, with Gidey taking a shot at the long-standing Dibaba's 5000 m record.
M. Gidey is more of a 10000 m specialist. She was second in last year's World's over that distance. Her previous best over the shorter distance was "just" 14:23.14 from 2018. So I was somewhat sceptical when the attempt was announced. However I was to be proven overly cautious. Paced superbly by none other than the steeplechase world champion and record holder B. Chepkoech, she passed at 3000 m in 8:31.85 right on the planned pace. And from there onwards she continued even increasing slightly her rhythm drawing on her last reserves on the final stretch and finishing with a amazing 14:06.62.
It was a unique moment when Chepkoech rushed to hug Gidey, literally lifting her off her feet.
It looked quite possible since at the time Ayana had a 14:12.59 personal best in that distance. (And then Ayana went on to loose the olympic 5000 m, and essentially disappear after 2017). But now that I have seen Gidey running in such a regular and efficient way in Valencia, I am again optimistic about a sub-14 min 5000 m record in a not-too-distant future.
Speaking of regularity, I think that the best innovation in track events is the Wavelight pacing system. Not only does it ensure a correct pacing all the way up to the finish line, something impossible with human pacers, it is also of great usefulness to the spectators. It was funny, over the last lap, to see Gidey turn her head to see how far ahead of the lights, moving at the world record pace, she was.
J. Cheptegei is the new name in middle-to-long distance running. When he announced that he was going to tackle the 10000 m record I did a fast calculation and it resulted that all he had to do is run a constant 63 s lap. Well, this is easier said than done, but if anybody could do it that was Cheptegei. In his enterprise he was helped by a superb pacer, N. Kimeli, a last year's World's finalist in the 5000 m with PBs of 12:51.79 and 26:58.97 in the 5000 and 10000 m respectively. Kimeli led Cheptegei to a 13:07.73 first 5000 m (and, surprisingly, he did not drop out of the race, as almost all pacers do, but carried on, finishing in 27:12.98). Cheptegei necessitated a few laps before finding his own pace, but once he reached the seventh kilometre it was clear that the record was within his grasp.
His final time, 26:11.00, is even better than the 63 s per lap I talked about in the previous paragraph. There has even been some pre-race speculation that Cheptegei could attack the 26-min barrier. My own feeling was that it was a tad too early for this. But now that he has mastered the sub 63 s pace, a 62.5 s one (corresponding to a round 26 min) is not unrealistic.
In the meantime Cheptegei has another objective: the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships, which will take place on October 17th. It might turn out that 10 days are not enough for Cheptegei to recover from his herculean effort, but one never knows. In any case I will keep an eye open.
PS. Well, 10 days were not enough. Cheptegei could manage just a 4th place, in a race won by his compatriot, young and talented, J. Kiplimo.
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