Chebet makes history
Kenyan becomes first woman to break 29 minutes in 10,000 meters in Pre Classic
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EUGENE, Oregon — Beatrice Chebet of Kenya became the first woman in history to run under 29 minutes for 10,000 meters on the track when she ran 28 minutes 54.14 seconds in the first event of the Prefontaine Classic at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field on Saturday morning.
The 24-year-old Chebet surged past pre-meet favorite and defending World 10,000 champion Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia with 1,250 meters left in the race and never looked back as she cut nearly seven seconds off the previous world record of 29:01.03 set by Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia in 2021.
Tsegay finished second in 29:05.92, the third-fastest time in history, followed by Kenyans Lilian Kasait Rengeruk in 29:26.89 and Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi in 29:27.59, whose times were the sixth- and seventh-fastest ever run.
The race served as the trials contest — at least for the first two of three spots — for the Kenyan team that will compete in the Olympic Games in Paris in August.
Chebet’s performance makes her the first Kenyan to hold the world record in the women’s 10,000, and for what it’s worth, it’s slightly faster than the hand-held time of 28:54.2 clocking that all-time men’s great Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia ran in 1954 when he became the first human to break 29 minutes for 10 kilometers.
“I knew the pace was good,” Chebet said when she was asked about why she passed Tsegay with more than three laps to go. “I knew I was feeling very strong. So I feel like I was very comfortable.”
The 27-year-old Tsegay had run a world record of 14:00.21 in the 5,000 at the Prefontaine Classic last September when she finished nearly six seconds ahead of second-place Chebet’s personal best of 14:05.92 in the meet that served as the Diamond League Finals for the first time. And she had announced several weeks ago that she wanted to take a crack at the world record in the 10,000 at this year’s meet that was back in its usual late-May spot on the Diamond League calendar.
After a pair of Ethiopian pacesetters had combined to come through the first three kilometers in 2:53.32, 5:48.07, and 8:42.19, Tsegay led at 4,000 meters in 11:37.39 and at 5,000 in 14:31.08.
Chebet, Rengeruk, and Kipkemboi were running in single file behind Tsegay at that point in the race, but the battle for first place was down to Tsegay and Chebet when the Ethiopian came through 6,000 meters 17:25.13.
Tsegay, who ran the third-fastest women’s 1,500 time in history when she timed 3:50.30 in the Diamond League opener in Xiamen, China, on April 20, was still in the lead at 7,000 meters in 20:19.97 and at 8,000 in 23:14.02. However, her facial expression was much more strained than that of Chebet, who had won her second consecutive World Athletics Cross Country title in Belgrade, Serbia, on March 30 when she led Kenya to a sweep of the first five places.
Chebet had not run a 10,000-meter race on the track since 2020 when she clocked a hand-held time of 33:29.7 while finishing second in a race in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. But she figured she was due for a quick race Saturday based on how well she has run over 10-kilometer cross country courses in recent years.
“What got me to believe in myself in the 10,000 on the track was if I could do good in a 10,000 in cross country, why can I not do good on the track?,’’ she said.
Tsegay was still in the lead on Saturday as she turned into the home straightaway approaching three laps to go, but Chebet sped past her 50 meters later.
When the Kenyan came through 9,000 meters in 26:07.90, she was just off the 26:06.00 split that would have projected to a final time at 29:00.00.0
However, she was increasing her tempo at that point in the race and she ended up running her final kilometer in 2:46.24 after averaging 2:54.21 per kilometer for the first 9,000 meters of the contest.
Chebet and Tsegay embraced shortly after the race. When Chebet was asked what her Ethiopian rival had said to her, she said Tsegay told her, “You are the best. You are strong.”
She certainly was on Saturday.