Tell someone you're a runner and there's a decent chance they'll ask you what your best 5K time is. Whether you're new to running or have loads of experience, it's a distance most runners are familiar with. (And if you've ever run a flat-out 5K before, you'll know how painful an ordeal it can be.) But while amateur 5K targets typically range from sub-30 minutes to sub-20 minutes, the elites can cover the distance considerably quicker...
Is there a difference between 5000m track and 5K road records?
It's important to point out that, although both events are technically the same distance, 5000m world records set on the track are quicker than those set on the road, since track times are always faster. This is why the two are differentiated.
What is the women's 5K road record?
Kenyan runner Beatrice Chebet currently holds the women's 5K world record on the road with a lightening fast time of 14:13. To put that into perspective, that's running an average of 4 minutes 34.56 seconds per mile, or 2 minutes 50.6 seconds per kilometre.
The 23-year-old broke the record on 31 December 2023 at the Cursa dels Nassos in Barcelona, taking six seconds off Ethiopian Ejgayehu Taye's mark (14:19), set at the same event in 2021. Taye finished second behind Chebet at the event this year, posting 14:21.
What is the men's 5K road record?
Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia holds the men's 5K road record with a time of 12:49 – also set at the Cursa dels Nassos in Barcelona on 31 December 2021. That's 4 minutes 7.52 seconds per mile, or 2 minutes 33.8 seconds per kilometre.
Previously, Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei – the current 5000m track world recorder – held the record with a time of 12:51, set on 16 February 2020 in Monaco.
5K road record progression
In November 2017, the 5K road running distance was introduced as an official World Athletics (formerly IAAF) event, 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. (That said, faster times had been recorded in both categories prior to it becoming an official world record event). Since these times weren't achieved that year in either category, the best 5K performances of 2018 were recognised.
Women
On the women's side, Caroline Kipkurui holds the first World Athletics recognised 5K world record after clocking 14:48 in Prague in 2018. In February the following year, Sifan Hassan took 4 seconds off the mark in Monaco, running 14:44 in a women's only race. Kenya's Beatrice Chepkoech then lowered the mixed (men's and women's) record by 1 second (14:43) at the Monaco Run in February 2021. In April that year, GB triathlete Beth Potter ran a huge PB of 14:31, although this was not ratified due to there being no drug testers present at the time. Then, less than a month later, Norway's Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal posted 14:39, but, again, this was not ratified.
However, on September 2021, Senbere Teferi of Ethiopia recorded 14:29 in Herzogenaurach to improve on both Chepkoech's 14:43 and Hassan's women's only mark (14:44). But in December that year, compatriot Ejgayehu Taye improved the women’s mixed-race mark even further when she posted 14:19 at Barcelona's Cursa dels Nassos. Taye's record stood for exactly two years before Kenya's Beatrice Chebet recently posted a new world record time of 14:13 on 31 December 2023.
Men
Bernard Kibet Lagat's 13:30, posted in Prague in September 2018, became the first men's World Athletics recognised 5K world record. Julien Wanders bettered that mark in Monaco in 2019 when he clocked 13:29 – a time equalled by Kenya's Edward Cheserek in April the following year. In November 2019, compatriot Robert Keter knocked 7 seconds off the mark to win the Urban Trail Lille in France, before countryman Rhonex Kipruto nabbed the title in January the following year, posting 13:18 en route to winning the 10K Valencia Ibercaja – and setting a new 10K record in the process. Then, the following month, Ugandan runner Joshua Cheptegei improved that mark by a whopping 27 seconds at the Monaco Run 5K (12:51), which Berihu Aregawi went on to better again in December 2021 with his current world-leading time of 12:49.
