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In a historic display of endurance and speed, Kenyan star Beatrice Chebet broke the women’s 5K road world record today at the Cursa dels Nassos in Barcelona, becoming the first woman in history to complete the distance in under 14 minutes. Chebet blazed across the finish line in a remarkable 13 minutes and 54 seconds, smashing her previous record of 14:13, which she set at the same event last year.  This is 4:28 per mile. 

A Year of Dominance

Chebet’s new world record caps off an extraordinary year for the 23-year-old, who dominated the long-distance running scene in 2024. Earlier this year, she achieved a rare double gold at the Paris Olympics, winning the 5,000m and 10,000m events. Her ability to excel on both the track and road has made her one of the most versatile and celebrated athletes of her generation.

In today’s race, Chebet showcased her tactical brilliance and unparalleled speed, pulling away from the competition early and maintaining a relentless pace throughout. Her achievement further cements her legacy as one of the sport’s all-time greats.

Young Talent on the Rise

Behind Chebet, Ethiopia’s Medina Eisa Kumanda delivered a stellar performance, finishing second in 14:23, a time that set a new world under-20 record. Uganda’s Belinda Chemutai rounded out the podium in 14:36, underscoring the depth of talent in women’s long-distance running.

Chebet’s record-breaking run comes as a fitting end to a year that saw her named World Athletics’ Female Athlete of the Year, a recognition of her consistent excellence across multiple platforms.

A Star with a Bright Future

Born in Kericho County, Kenya, Beatrice Chebet has steadily risen through the ranks since her early days as a promising junior athlete. She first gained international attention in 2018 when she won the World U20 Cross Country Championships. From there, she transitioned seamlessly to senior competition, with her Olympic triumphs and multiple Diamond League victories solidifying her place at the pinnacle of the sport.

Off the track, Chebet is known for her humility and dedication to her training. She often credits her success to the support of her family.  She trains in Londiani, Kericho County. She is nicknamed the "smiling assassin". 

A Record to Inspire

Chebet’s achievement in Barcelona is not just a personal milestone; it’s an inspiration to young athletes worldwide. By breaking the 14-minute barrier, she has redefined what is possible in women’s distance running, paving the way for future generations to dream bigger and aim higher.

As the athletics world celebrates this historic moment, all eyes will now turn to 2025, where Chebet will undoubtedly aim to build on her incredible legacy.

Kenyan Beatrice Chebet will repeat her participation in the Cursa dels Nassos on December 31, which this year has reached an unprecedented number of 12,000 registered in its popular race, with the challenge of beating the women's world record in the 5km road that she herself set in the last edition with a time of 14:13.

During the presentation of the event, held this Wednesday at the Olympic and Sports Museum of Barcelona, the Councilor for Sports, David Escudé, recalled that the Cursa dels Nassos was chosen by World Athletics as the best international women's event in 2023.

"This recognition, which is like winning the Oscars of athletics, has driven us to continue working and improving. This year, in addition to being the most multitudinous edition, it will also be the most female edition in the history of the event, with a record participation of women of 35% (more than 4,000)," she said.

As in the last four years, the Cursa dels Nassos will consist of two events in its 26th edition: a five-kilometer race with international elite athletes that will start at 4:20 p.m. and a popular ten-kilometer race that will start at 5:15 p.m.

The possibility of breaking the women's world record in the 5K kilometer race – which will once again be mixed, unlike last year – will be the main incentive of a day in which the Kenyan Beatrice Chebet will start as the great favorite.

The 24-year-old African athlete is coming off two gold medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the Paris Olympics, and will try to lower the world record she set at the 2023 Cursa dels Nassos (14:13). The Ethiopians Medina Eisa and Melknat Wudu, and the Catalan Esther Guerrero stand out as her main adversaries.

Kenyan clocks 14:13 at New Year’s Eve event in Barcelona to take six seconds off Ejgayehu Taye’s mark

Beatrice Chebet ended 2023 in style with a world 5km record of 14:13 on the roads of Barcelona in the Cursa dels Nassos event on New Year’s Eve.

Runner-up was Ejgayehu Taye in 14:21 with Lilian Rengeruk third in 14:25.

Taye held the previous world 5km record with 14:19 from the same Cursa dels Nassos from 2021, although Taye’s run two years ago came in a mixed gender race.

On Sunday (Dec 31) Chebet’s performance therefore not only beat Taye’s mark but smashed the women-only world record of 14:29 which was set by Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi in Herzogenaurach in September 2021

The participation of the Kenyans Beatrice Chebet and Lilian Kasait and the Ethiopian Ejgayehu Taye, world medalists, will be the great incentive of the Cursa dels Nassos 2023, which on December 31 aims to break the women's world record in the 5 kilometer race.

"We have made a very clear commitment to first-rate female representation. We wanted to have the podium at the last world championship in road athletics, which will make us a world reference in women's sports," said the Sports Councilor of Barcelona City Council. , David Escudé.

Escudé stressed that the objective of the contest will be to beat the world record for five kilometers in an exclusively female race.

"It is the record we are missing," said the councilor. The Cursa dels Nassos, which will reach its 25th edition and will organize an international 5 kilometer race for four consecutive years, still holds the men's and women's world records in a mixed race, established in 2021 by the Ethiopians Berihu Aregawi (12:49) and Ejgayehu Taye (14:21).

The possibility of breaking the women's record will be the great incentive of the last sporting event of the year. In the World Athletics Championships held last October in Riga (Latvia), Chebet came first (14:35), followed by Kasait (14:39) and Taye (14:40).

In the men's category, the participation of the refugee athlete from South Sudan living in Switzerland Dominic Lobalu stands out, whose best record in the 5,000 meters is 12:52, who will compete against some of the best distance specialists, among whom There are 18 athletes who clock less than 14:00, such as the Spanish Ilias Fifa and Abdesamad Oukhelfen.

Ejgayehu Taye came within two seconds of the world 5km record she set two years ago at the Cursa dels Nassos, while Adisu Girma made it an Ethiopian double at the World Athletics Label road event in Barcelona on Saturday (31).

Paced by Latvia's Dmitrijs Serjogins, 22-year-old Ethiopian Taye went through the opening kilometer in a swift 2:49, well on schedule to challenge her own world record of 14:19 she set exactly one year ago at the same venue. By then, Taye had Germany's Konstanze Klosterhalfen for company as the newly-minted European cross country silver medalist was aiming to break the European record of 14:44.

Taye, the world indoor 3000m bronze medalist, maintained her pace over the second kilometer which was reached in 5:39 and shortly afterwards that cadence proved to be too fast for Klosterhalfen who began to lose ground. Running always at the pacemaker's shoulder, Taye was timed at 7:04 at halfway, well inside the world record pace, and 8:33 at 3km while Klosterhalfen was 10 seconds in arrears by then. Surprisingly, Norway's European cross-country champion Karoline Grovdal was never a factor and passed 3km a further eight seconds behind Klosterhalfen.

Taye, who was fifth over 5000m at the Olympic Games, slowed slightly during the fourth kilometer to clock 11:29 at 4km and then desperately tried to find another gear in the final kilometer to revise her own world record. She crossed the line in 14:21, the second-fastest 5km performance in history and just two seconds off her world record.

Klosterhalfen was a distant second, 31 seconds adrift in 14:52, eight seconds outside the European record but gaining revenge on third placed Groval, timed at 15:06.

“Maybe I went off too fast and I finally could not maintain the required pace to break the record but anyway I'm satisfied as it's a great performance,” said Taye, who has a 5000m track PB of 14:12.98 and who finished sixth over 10,000m at the World Championships in Oregon. “I'll run next in the Valencia 10K in a couple of weeks' time.”

World 5000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen had been due to compete in the men’s race in what would have been his first race on Spanish soil, but the Olympic 1500m champion was forced to withdraw on the eve of the race due to illness.

In his absence, attention turned to Ethiopia's Adisu Girma, a 3:35.81 1500m specialist, Spain's Abdessamad Oukhelfen, a creditable 10th at the recent European Cross Country Championships, Switzerland’s Jonas Raess, and Spain's 2016 European 5000m champion Ilias Fifa.

The leading group covered the opening two kilometers at 2:40/km pace, but the cadence decreased over the following couple of kilometers and the lead quartet reached 4km in 10:50. Fifa was the first to launch a serious finishing kick some 800 meters from home, but 23-year-old Ethiopian Girma responded with a devastating burst of speed to break away from the Spaniard with ease and cross the finish line in 13:25 to Fifa's 13:30 and Raess's 13:31.

Leading results

Women

1 Ejgayehu Taye (ETH) 14:21

2 Konstanze Klosterhalfen (GER) 14:52

3 Karoline Grovdal (NOR) 15:06

4 Miriam Chebet (KEN) 15:36

5 Agate Caune (LAT) 15:44

Men

1 Adisu Girma (ETH) 13:25

2 Ilias Fifa (ESP) 13:30

3 Jonas Raess (SWI) 13:31

4 Andessadam Oukhelfen (ESP) 13:37

5 Mohamed Al Garni (QAT) 13:41.

Definitely committed to the end of the year, the Cursa dels Nassos (Barcelona's San Silvestre) aims to get people talking about it almost as much as we talk about the San Silvestre Vallecana (Madrid) or the San Silvestre in São Paulo, which is the most popular in the world.

Definitely committed to the end of the year, the Cursa dels Nassos (Barcelona's San Silvestre) aims to get people talking about it almost as much as we talk about the San Silvestre Vallecana (Madrid) or the San Silvestre in São Paulo, which is the most popular in the world.

So bet big.

And bet on insurance.

Or perhaps Jakob Ingebrigtsen is not a guarantee of quality?

Olympic champion of the 1,500, world champion of the 5,000, multiple European champion of both distances, the Norwegian talent (22) has confirmed his presence in the short distance of the Nassos, the 5K, a race that will be held at 7:00 p.m. on the 31st of December and in which we could witness a European record: Ingebrigtsen will look for the 13m14s of the Italian Yemane Crippa, an objective that is within his reach, since the Norwegian has come to sign 12m48s45 in the 5,000m, record of the track test.

The organizers assure that Jakob Ingebrigtsen will not run alone, but rather escorted by his older brothers, Henrik (31) and Filip (29), European champions of the 1,500 in 2012 and 2016, a magnificent display of Norwegian athletics that includes Karoline Grovdal (32), European cross country gold in the last two editions, including the most recent, just a week and a half ago, in Turin.

Grovdal will run in the same distance, the 5K, where the Ethiopian Ejegayehu Taye (22), world record holder (14m19s from last year right here, in Barcelona), and the sharp German Konstanze Klosterhalfen await her.

The 10K will have been held earlier, starting at 5:15 p.m.