Herculean task for Chebet, Kasait as they chase 5km title in Riga

There will be no easing in gently to the elite race programme in Riga, with the women’s 5km featuring a stellar field of Olympic and world medalists on the hunt for the first of the six titles on offer at the World Athletics Road Running Championships Riga 23.

Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet has already claimed one global gold in 2023 and after becoming the world cross country champion in Bathurst in February, the 23-year-old now targets her second out-of-stadium title of the year.

That’s not to say her track form is any less impressive. Chebet was second in her most recent race, but it took a world record to beat her – Gudaf Tsegay clocking 14:00.21 in the Wanda Diamond League final in Eugene to take almost five seconds off the 5000m mark that Faith Kipyegon set in Paris in June, and Chebet almost dipping underneath it too with 14:05.92 for the third-fastest performance of all time.

Kenya’s Kimeli facing tough opposition as three of the fastest 5km runners clash in Riga

Prior to that, Chebet claimed her second world 5000m medal, adding bronze in Budapest to the silver she secured in Oregon.

Her 5km personal best (PB) of 14:32, set when winning last year’s Diamond League title on the streets of Zurich, also makes Chebet one of the quickest of all time. But in Riga, she’ll be up against the fastest.

Cue Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye, the mixed-race world record-holder who ran 14:19 in Barcelona on the final day of 2021, at the same event at which Berihu Aregawi set his world record.

Unlike in Riga, where the women’s and men’s races will be held separately, the event in Barcelona saw both fields start at the same time. Taye went on to take 24 seconds off the world record for the 5km in a mixed race and a year later she returned to run 14:21. The women-only world 5km record is 14:29, set by Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi in Herzogenaurach in 2021.

Since her world record performance, Taye has also become a world indoor and outdoor medalist – world indoor 3000m bronze in Belgrade followed by a world 10,000m medal of the same colour in Budapest – and she has also taken her 5000m PB to 14:12.98, making her the second fastest in the field when it comes to track times for the distance.

Taye is listed on the Ethiopian squad alongside Medina Eisa and Lemlem Hailu. World U20 cross country silver medalist Eisa ran 14:16.54 in London in July and has a 5km PB of 14:46 from April, while world indoor 3000m champion Hailu clocked 14:34.53 for 5000m in Paris in June and would be making her 5km debut.

For Kenya, Chebet is joined by Lilian Kasait Rengeruk, the 2017 world cross country bronze medalist who won the 5000m at the Brussels Diamond League earlier this month and clocked a 14:23.05 PB when finishing fourth behind world record-breaker Kipyegon in Paris.

One of the intriguing things about road racing is that it can bring together athletes who might not usually go head to head. Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai is better known for her exploits in the 3000m steeplechase, having won the Olympic title in the discipline in Tokyo, but she has raced Chebet once before – and beaten her.

Peres Jepchirchir chasing third world half marathon title in Riga

The pair clashed in a cross-country race in Hannut last year, when Chemutai pipped Chebet by 13 seconds. Now Chemutai gets ready to return to the roads, looking to build on the PB of 15:05 she set in the first of the two 5km races she has undertaken in her career so far.

Chemutai is joined in the Ugandan squad by Joy Cheptoyek and Prisca Chesang, who claimed 5000m bronze medals at the 2021 and 2022 editions of the World U20 Championships.

Italy’s Nadia Battocletti – seventh in both the Olympic and European 5000m finals – will also be in action, along with USA’s Emily Infeld and Burundi's Francine Niyomukunzi.

By World Athletics