KEJELECHA DESTROYED CHEPTEGEI - 26:37 VS 26:53

Nothing shameful about it. Good wake up call for him.

East African rivalry?

The big fish is at the Olym/WC.

Has there ever been a worse 5000/10000 record holder than this guy?

37th in the marathon
DNS 5000 at 2023 champs
lost both Diamond League races last year
only 9th in 5000 at 2022 champs
got destroyed today

We should start calling him Cheaptegui

Henry Rono could only manage 287th at NCAA XC one year. What a scrub!

1 bad race is excusable. 6 stinkers in less than two years is not. He loses more than he wins.

I believe you meant to write "CHEPTEGEI GOES HOME DEVASTATED!!!!"

While he's certainly no Kenenisa Bekele, going silver in the Olympic 10000 (with 5000 gold) and following it up with back to back world championship titles is a solid career in the making. Certainly not a bad result losing to Kejelcha early when he ran an all time 10k road race. Plenty of time to peak for the Olympics

What about a guy like Ron Clarke? I believe he broke like 7 world records in his career with a single Olympic Bronze medal to show for it. But to me saying so and so is the worst 5000/10000 record holder sounds slightly absurd.

Even if Chep never wins another race, 4 golds, 6 total medals and 2 WR's puts on the Mt Everest of long-distance track. The legacy is already solidified.

He is extremely beatable throughout the year, but a money 10K racer when it counts. I think he has far more ups and downs and injuries seemingly than what we’re used to. So he’s not dominant but again he produces at global champs.

I wish I could be just 15-20 seconds off my expected performance in a 10k on a bad day. Unfortunately, a bad day for me is 1-2 minutes off of my expected performance.

Eh. He doesn’t win throughout the year but has gotten gold every year since 2019 + the WR in 2020. So he does time his peak well… unlike the Ethiopians (with the exception of Barega)

It's a 26:53 on the roads in March. I would call this a pretty good result. Just because he isn't the top 10k runner at this very moment doesn't mean he won't be in August when it actually matters.

Gotta be careful about activating Ethiopian Mode too early though. Needs to last through the summer.

Cheptegei in my eyes has not really been the same guy since running the 5000m/10000m wr's. The 5 was particularly impressive because he beat Bekele's record in warm weather in the 80s. But after the 10 WR he then ran a half marathon following two tapers and didn't run as well as Kiplimo. Since then he has not been at the same level and he has been inconsistent. Other than the record year, and prior to last year, his fastest 5000m was just 12:54 in 2021. In the 10000m, his best race outside the wr was 26:48 the previous year and since the wr he has only run 27:27 on the track, so this was actually a bit of return to form for him.By the way, his marathon at Valencia was just 2:08:59. In 2019 and 2022, he had strong road 10km races, 26:38 and 26:49, so this is close to the latter and together with the 12:41 he ran last year with the super shoes (were the super spikes available to him in 2020 when he ran his wr's?), indicates that he may be getting closer to his wr form. But we should also be rating him on his championship performances, and by that standard he's done a lot and consistently. He has gold and silver in the 5000m and 10000m, respectively, in the Olympics from 2021, three golds in the 10000m at World's 2019, 2022, and 2023, and silver in 2017, as well as a gold (2019 Aarhus) and bronze (2023, Bathurst) at senior world xc.

Actually, 17 world records. Yep - one Olympic bronze (and several silvers at the Commonwealth Games).

I nominate ChepteNOTTHATgei.

We kind of expected him to stay at 26'low level for a couple of years to shatter the competition.

But no. That lasted a few months and vanished, maybe forever. Incredibly, he made the most out of it, and that s what make us sad.

True dat!!!!! Good prescience here!!!!

Yes, it's the end of the era for Joshua. He was no longer the same athlete after the vaccination with COVID vaccine but of course don't forget he combines eternal exposure to anthropogenic RFs as well which turns up the hazards of the vaccine a notch higher or 2!!!!

Imagine running 26:11 in 2020 before vaccination and then suddenly become 1 min and more slower upon vaccination from late 2021 and early 2022 onwards (he still won Eugene 10k though). From utter dominance in absolute speed to only relying on kicking ability to win in slow championship 10k races to outright losing 5k races completely with non-existent kicking or surging ability???

This is all subjective reasoning and persuading based on susceptible factors in space and time!!!