Little known Robert Keter’s world 5km record of 13:22 has been ratified after winning the Urban Trail Lille 5km on 9 November.
Keter upstaged a quality field to take seven seconds off the previous world record after defeating world under 20 5,000m silver medalist Stanley Waithaka, Davis Kiplangat and Gilbert Kwemoi.
Who won the title in 13:22, breaking the previous world record set by Switzerland’s Julien Wanders in Monaco on 17 February 2019.
The 5km road distance was introduced as an official world record event in November 2017, with the inaugural record to be recognised after 1 January 2018 if the performances were equal to or better than 13:10 for men and 14:45 for women.
If no such performances were achieved in 2018, the best performances of 2018 (13:30 by Bernard Kibet and 14:48 by Caroline Kipkurui) would be recognised on 1 January 2019. Seven weeks into 2019, Wanders and Sifan Hassan bettered those marks in Monaco by clocking 13:29 and 14:44.
Several athletes, however, have gone quicker than Keter’s 13:22 before the 5km became an official world record event. The fastest time ever recorded for the distance remains Sammy Kipketer’s 13:00 clocking in Carlsbad in 2000.