Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay broke the world record in the 5000m by nearly five seconds
Ever wondered how quickly the best athletes in the world can run 5K? Well, in recent years, it can be quite hard to keep up. In the last three months alone, two world records have fallen in the women’s 5000m – with the most recent being last weekend at the Diamond League final in Eugene, Oregon.
What is the women’s 5000m world record?
Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia holds the current 5000m world record with 14:00.21, set on Sunday 17 September at the Monaco Diamond League. She took nearly five seconds off the previous mark set in June by Kenya's Faith Kipyegon (14:05.20).
After a leg injury resulted in a poor performance for the 26-year-0ld at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Tsegay says she had lost sleep thinking about her missed chance and came into the race determined to take the record . 'I’m very hungry in my mind,' she told RW. 'But today is very happy.'
What is the history of the women's 5000m world record?
The first official IAAF world record over 5000m was set by Paula Fudge of Britain with 15:14.51 at Knarvik, Norway in September 1981.
In March 1982, Anne Audain of New Zealand took the world record with 15:13.22 at what was her first 5000m race, but that record fell just three months later when Mary Tabb of the USA ran 15:08.26 in Eugene, Oregon.
In January 1984, Zola Budd ran an unratified 15:01.83 in Stellenbosch in South Africa, aged just 17. As her performance took place in South Africa, which was excluded from international athletics competition because of its segregation policy, the IAAF refused to ratify Budd's time as an official world record.
She was eclipsed by 10,000m record holder Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway five months later when she ran 14:58:89 in Oslo, Norway on 28 June 1984 – the same year she won the Houston and London Marathons.
But in 1985 – now representing Great Britain – Zola Budd came back and reclaimed the world record, officially, clocking 14:48.07.
The tussle for the world record mark rumbled on between the pair, however, with Ingrid Kristiansen taking 11 seconds off Budd's mark in August 1986, when she ran 14:37:33 in Stockholm, Sweden. That year, she also won the Boston Marathon and set a new world record in the 10,000m (30:13.3), lowering her own 1984 record by 46 seconds.
Kristiansen's 5000m record remained for the next nine years – only toppled on 22 July 1995 when Portuguese runner Maria Fernanda Moreira Ribeiro clocked 14:36:45 in Hechtel. The following year she won 10,000m gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Fast forward two years and Chinese long-distance runner Dong Yanmei took over five seconds off Ribeiro's mark when she ran 14:31:27 in her heat at the Chinese National Games – but two days later that record fell when compatriot Jiang Bo ran 14:28:09 in the 5000m final.
The record stood until 2004 when Turkish athlete Elvan Abeylegesse clocked 14:24:68 at Bergen, Norway, becoming the first Turkish athlete ever to set a world record. She held that record for two years until Ethiopia began a campaign of 5000m domination.
On 3 June 2006, Ethiopia's Meseret Defar ran 14:24:53 in New York, clocking an incredible 61.6 in the final lap. The year after, she went onto lower her own record, clocking 14:16.63.
Just shy of a year later, compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba took the record when she ran 14:11:15 in Oslo, Norway – a record that would stand for 12 years. Then in 2020, Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey ran 14:06:62 at the NN Valencia World Record Day meet, going onto break the record for 10,000m and half marathon the following year – records which she still holds.
Then, three years later, Faith Kipyegon came to the fore – clocking 14:05.20 at the Paris Diamond League a week after shattering the world record in the women's 1500 meters.
And this, of comes, brings us up to 17 September 2023, when Gudaf Tsegay ran 14:00.21 at the Monaco Diamond League.
What is the men's 5000m world record?
Ugandan athlete Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei holds the men's 5000m record of 12:35.36, set in Monaco in 2020, where he took 99 seconds off Kenenisa Bekele's previous mark of 12:37.35, set in May 2004.
What is the history of the men's 5000m world record?
The first official IAAF world record over 5000m in the men's category is held by Finnish athlete Hannes Kolehmainen, who in 1912 posted 14:36:6 at the Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden.
From then until 1942, Finland dominated the distance – but it took 10 years for compatriot Paavo Nurmi – later heralded the 'Flying Finn' – to dethrone Kolehmainen. That happened in 1922, when he clocked 14:35.4 – the same year he set records in the 2000m and the 3000m, going on to break records for the 1500m and the mile the following year.
In 1924, at the Finnish Olympic trials in Helsinki, Nurmi lowered his own world record to 4:28.2 – just 50 minutes after breaking the world record for the 1500m.
That record lasted for eights year, until Lauri Lehtinen emerged and knocked 11 seconds off Nurmi's record in 1932, posting 14:17.0 – a record that stood for seven years.
Then in 1939, Taisto Mäki, – the 10,000m and 2-mile world record holder at the time, and also herald a 'Flying Finn' – swooped in and took the record, posting a 14:08.8 in Helsinki.
In 1942, Sweden's Gunder Hägg was the man to finally take possession of the 5000m record from Finland, when he clocked 13:58.2 in 1942 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Czech athlete Emil Zátopek, best known for winning three gold medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics, took the record from Hägg in 1954, when he clocked 13:57.2 in Paris, France – becoming the first runner to break the 29-minute barrier in the 10,000 metres that same year.
Zátopek's 5000m record didn't last for long, though, as Soviet athlete Vladimir Kuts nabbed the record just a few months' later at the European Championships, where he defeated the Czech athlete and race favourite to the title.
Less than two months later, Britain's Chris Chataway ran a 13:51:6 at a London v. Moscow athletics competition at White City – having finished 12.2 seconds behind Kuts in the European Champs. Although Kuts reclaimed the record just 10 days later in Prague, it made Chataway a celebrity and that December he won the first BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
The following year on 10 September 1955, Sandor Iharos of Hungry, who had broken the 3000m record earlier that year, ran 13:50:8 to take the 5000m record. He only held that record for eight days before Kuts remerged with a time of 13:46.8 but Iharos reclaimed it with a time of 13:40.6 on 23 October 1955.
But in 1956, Britain's Gordon Pirie, who set five world records throughout his career, ran a 13:36:8 in Bergen to take the record. But Kuts, once again, came back fighting, reclaiming the record on 13 October 1957 with 13:35.0 in Rome.
Then in 1965, Australian talent and 10,000m Olympic bronze medallist Ron Clarke came onto the scene – a man who went onto set 17 world records. On 16 January he clocked a 13:34.8 to take Kuts' recorded, beating his own record again just a few weeks later in Auckland with 13:33.6. Then on 4 June the same year, he lowered his own world record down again, when he ran a 13:25.8 in Compton USA. Kenya's Kipchoge Keino temporarily took the title from Clarke on 30 November 1965, but he took back the record in 1966 with a 13:16:6 run in Stockholm, Sweden.
Lasse Virén – winner of four gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics – then came onto the scene six years later, clocking 13:16:4 on 14 September 1972 in Helsinki, but six days later, Belgium's Emiel Puttemans ran a 13:13.0 in Brussels, just six days after placing fifth in the 5000m at the Summer Olympics. He held that record for nearly five years.
New Zealand's Dick Quax took the record on 5 July 1977 in Stockholm where he posted 13:12:9, before Kenya's Henry Rono took the record in California in 1978 with a 13:08:4 run. It was part of an 81-day record streak, in which the Kenyan broke four world records over 5000m, 10,000m, the 3000m steeplechase and 3000m. The following year he went onto lower 5000m his record to 13:06:20.
The following year, Great Britain's David Moorcroft clocked a 13:00:41 at the Bislett Games in Oslo. That record stood for three years before Moroccos' Saïd Aouita – the only athlete in history to have won a medal in each of the 800m and 5000m at the Olympic games– ran 13:00:40, also in Oslo, lowering his own record to 12:58.39 just over two years later.
Fast forward to 1994 and Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie clocked a 12:56:96 in Hengelo –his first world record.
From then until 1998, the two-time Olympic 10,000m gold medal winner and four-time 10,000m world champion broke his won record a further three times: in 1995, 1997 and 1998. Kenya's Moses Kiptanui temporarily dethroned him on 8 June 1995 when he ran a 12:55:30, as did Kenya's Daniel Komen in 1997 with a 12:39:74, but Gebrselassie's 1998 run of 12:39:36 stood for nearly six years.
Then, in 2004, the running great that is Kenenisa Bekele emerged, running 12:37:35 in Hengelo – a record that then stood for 16 years until Joshua Cheptegei toppled the record in 2020 in Monaco.
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