Uganda’s world record holder for the half marathon, Jacob Kiplimo, and Kenya’s World Cross Country bronze medalist, Agnes Ngetich, will be the highlight stars at this weekend’s 10K Valencia Ibercaja in Spain, this weekend, the 14th of January, 2024.
In a year that most runners are looking for the fastest courses in the world to get the Olympic qualification times, more than 100 elite athletes from fifteen different nationalities have already entered to race in the already sold-out event. 14,000 runners are already registered to take part in the race.
The Paris Olympic Games' qualification standards for men’s and women’s 10,000m are 27:00 and 30:40, respectively.
Kenya’s bronze medalist from Bathurst, Australia is going to attempt the world record for the women’s 10K distance. She thought she had done it last September at the tRUNsylvania International 10K, in Romania, only for the course to be re-measured and found out to be 25m shorter.
Well, perhaps those who had written about the world record run by the 22-year-old Kenyan then should keep their notes intact for a little while as they might need to re-use them on Sunday. The course in Valencia is certified and currently holds the men’s world record time of 26:24, which was set by Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto in 2020.
In what appears to be one of the fastest-ever assembled women’s elite fields for a women’s 10K race, the rest of the women’s elite field is still deep and should offer tough competition to Ngetich, if not the necessary push for her to achieve the world record. There are a total of nine women who have gone under 31 minutes, led by the 2017 World Cross country champion, Irene Cheptai.
In the men's race, Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, with a personal best time of 26:33.93 for 10,000m, leads fifteen other runners with their personal best times under 28 minutes. The Ugandan star holds the world record for the half marathon and the world’s best time for the 15 km. It remains to be seen whether the 23-year-old will add the 10K distance as another one of his impressive world records.
Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera, who is currently ranked as the world’s number-one cross-country runner and who has an impressive time of 26:56 for the 10K, will be one of the runners to watch out for in the men’s race.
Given the size of the elite fields and the quest for the Olympic times, it will be fun to count out the number of personal best times, and national records that will be registered at the end of the day.