Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei, the world record holder at 5000m and 10,000m, plans to make his marathon debut Dec. 3 in Valencia, Spain.
“I feel it is time to expand my horizon,” Cheptegei said in a press release, adding that he plans to race on the track at the 2024 Paris Olympics. “I have been running on the track for 10 years now. I always had full focus on the track distances, while I knew the marathon was waiting for me.”
Cheptegei, 26, is also the Tokyo Olympic 5000m champion and 10,000m silver medalist. He won the 10,000m at the last two world championships in 2019 and 2022.
He is familiar with Valencia, having broken the 10,000m world record there on Oct. 7, 2020.
The Valencia Marathon has emerged as arguably the world’s best outside of the six annual World Marathon Majors (Boston, Chicago, New York City, Berlin, London, Tokyo).
It is also a fast course. Three of the nine men in history to run 2:03:00 or faster did so at Valencia in the last three years. Last December, an unprecedented four women broke 2:18 and an unprecedented seven broke 2:19 in the same race.