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Yet again, a season unlike any other has produced an unparalleled evening of athletics. Two venerable world records were shattered within the span of less than 50 minutes last night, illustrating once again how the Coronavirus pandemic that upended much of the world in 2020 hasn’t fazed the determination of many of the world’s finest athletes. Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia came first, producing a stunning 5000m run of 14:06.62 to smash the previous mark by more than four seconds. A few minutes after the 22-year-old's sensational performance, Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei took his turn, covering 25 laps of the track in 26:11.00 to better the previous 10,000m world record by more than six seconds. The records for those two events had never been broken on the same day. The setting? A two-race meeting aptly named the NN Valencia World Record Day at the Spanish city’s intimate Turia Stadium before a crowd limited to less than 150 due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. The scene was in stark contrast to those in Oslo, on 6 June 2008, when Tirunesh Dibaba took command of the world 5000m record with a 14:11.15 run and three years earlier, in Brussels on 26 August 2005, when Kenenisa Bekele clocked 26:17.53 to clip 2.57 seconds from his own year-old mark. The roar of capacity crowds at the events, both fixtures of the Golden League series, were crucial in those record assaults. In Brussels, the pulsating beat provided by an African expat drum orchestra added to the thunder produced by the crowd of 47,000 that packed the King Baudouin Stadium. That was absent in Valencia, but it didn’t seem to matter to either Gidey or Cheptegei whose phenomenal form and singular focus landed both in the record books. For Cheptegei, whose performance came 54 days after he broke the world 5000m record in Monaco, where attendance was also restricted, the circumstances of the setting wasn’t anything new. “I wanted to show the sports lovers of the world that the track is exciting," said the 24-year-old, who became the 10th man to hold the 5000m and 10,000m world record concurrently. Alluding to the coronavirus pandemic, Cheptegei added, "In this difficult situation, I hope things like this can still give us joy and some hope for tomorrow." He'll now resume his preparations for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October where he will make his eagerly anticipated debut over the distance. He'll also arrive in the Polish city unbeaten in three appearances this year - each victory fueled by a world record performance. Gidey meanwhile, arrived in Valencia with just one race on her CV this season, a solid 14:26.57 run in Monaco, but with form suggesting that she could run significantly faster. Unlike Cheptegei, who made no secret about his planned assault on the record, Gidey opted for a more understated approach in the lead-in to the meeting, choosing to play down pre-race talk of her attack on Dibaba's mark. But her ambitions became evident when she passed the 3000-metre point nearly seven seconds ahead of world record pace. “I have been dreaming about this (setting a world record) for six years,” said Gidey, who hadn't won a 5000m race since 2016. "I am very happy now." ProfileLetesenbet Gidey Gidey may have harboured her world record dreams for more than half a decade, but early in her career, she was a very reluctant competitor. So much so that in 2011 she was expelled from school for refusing to run in physical education classes. “I really did not like racing,” she said, recalling her 13-year-old self. “I brought my parents to school to talk to the headmaster with the hope of getting reinstated. He agreed to reinstate me only if I ran for the school. I reluctantly agreed, just for the chance to get back to school.” That headmaster deserves at least a modicum of credit for the career trajectory of Ethiopia's latest distance running star because if any reluctance remained, Gidey hid it well. Born in Endameskel in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, Gidey – the fourth child in a family of two brothers and two sisters – grew up on her family’s farm looking to initially pursue academic interests. But after getting drawn to the sport in an unorthodox fashion, she knew that it could be her calling in life after competing in a regional race some four years ago. “I ran a 3000m race representing my Woreda [district] and finished second at the All-Tigray Games,” she recalls. “It was this performance that convinced me that I may have a future in athletics.” But it wasn't an entirely happy introduction to the sport. Earl on, Gidey struggled for consistency when competing in her region, sometimes even getting lapped in races. “I remember finishing 44th in my first cross country race [the junior women’s race at the Jan Meda national championships] in 2012,” she says. “That really did not feel good at all.” But she stuck with it. In late 2012, Gidey won a 3000m/2000m steeplechase double for the Tigray region at the Ethiopian Schools Championships in Shashemane. That captured the attention of club scouts. A few weeks later, she joined the Trans sport club and moved to Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region. She then spent the next two years working her way into the national ranks which led to her first global breakthrough. In 2015 Gidey led an Ethiopian podium sweep in the U20 race at the World Cross Country Championships, a title she defended in Kampala two years later. She performed admirably on the track in her international debut, finishing fourth in the 3000m at the 2015 World U18 Championships. Her steady rise continued. In 2018, her first season in the senior ranks, she improved to 8:30.96 and 14:23.14 in the 3000m and 5000m, respectively. The latter remained her lifetime best until her record run in Valencia. The following year witnessed a return to the global spotlight. In March she raced to bronze at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus and improved by a spot in Doha where she took 10,000m silver at the World Championships. She then capped the year with a 44:20 world best over 15km at the Seven Hills Run in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Her performance in Valencia, at just 22, suggests that a further assault on the event's 14-minute barrier is well within Gidey's reach. StatsPersonal bests: World record progression 5000m: World all-time 5000m list |
