Beatrice Chebet smashes 14-minute barrier for 5km

Double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet ended her year on a high by running a stunning 13:54 to shatter the world 5km record at the Cursa dels Nassos, a World Athletics Label road race, in Barcelona on Tuesday (31).

What makes her time even more sensational is that she is the first woman to break the 14-minute barrier on any surface, also surpassing Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay’s 5,000m world record of 14:00.21.

In doing so, the 24-year-old Kenyan bettered the previous record by 19 seconds.

Twelve months to the day after running a world 5km record of 14:13 in Barcelona, Beatrice Chebet returned to the same Cursa Dels Nassos race in the Spanish city to improve the mark to 13:54.

In March she won the world cross-country title in Belgrade, successfully defending the crown she won in Bathurst in 2023. At the Pre Classic in the summer she then became the first woman to run a sub-29-minute time for 10,000m when she sliced seven seconds off Letesenbet Gidey’s world record with 28:54.14.

At the Paris Olympics the diminutive runner out-sprinted Faith Kipyegon and Sifan Hassan to the 5000m title and a few days later completed a golden double with 10,000m victory.

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Diamond League glory followed in Brussels as she won the 5000m. Now, after a few months of more training, she seems to have moved on to yet another level with this 13:54 time for 5km.

The top overall finisher at the Cursa Dels Nassos 5K, Matthew Kipkoech, crossed the line only 26 seconds ahead of Chebet.

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Her time will remain unofficial as it undergoes World Athletics’ ratification process, and could be the first world record ratified in the new year.