African athletics have performed exceptionally well, despite the challenges presented by the global Covid-19 pandemic. The monumental performances by Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey and Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei’s to break two of the sport’s most revered world records were set in Valencia on October 7, 2020 in the span of a glorious hour. First, it was Gidey who achieved a superb performance, cutting off more than four seconds from the previous record set by his compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba 12 years earlier. A few minutes later, Cheptegei completed 25 laps in less than 63 seconds each on average to improve by more than six seconds the 15-year-old record by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele
In the same vein, Burkina’s Hugues-Fabrice Zango became, on January 16, 2021 in Aubière, France, the first man to exceed 18 m indoors in the Triple jump, breaking the world record established by his trainer, the French Teddy Tamgho (17.92m).
Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir seizes world record in half marathon
Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir (26) greatly improved the world record for the half-marathon in an all-female race by setting the time of 1:05:16 on October 17, 2020 in Gdynia during the world championships of the event. Previously, on September 5, 2020 in Prague, she had already erased, in 1h 05mn 34s the world record of the Ethiopian Netsanet Gudeta (1h06'11 '') successful at the Worlds of the specialty in 2018.
Recall that the women's world record for the half-marathon in a mixed race belongs to the Ethiopian Ababel Yeshaneh in 1h04'31 ''.
Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay breaks world indoor 1500m record
The young Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay (24) captured the best mark of all time over 1500m (indoor) in 3'53''09, during the Liévin meeting held on February 9, 2021. She subtracted more than two seconds from the time set by his compatriot Genzebe Dibaba in February 2014 in Karlsruhe (3'55''17). Over the same distance, Tsegay notably won a bronze medal at the last World Championships in Do
5 km world record by Beatrice Chepkoech
Kenyan Béatrice Chepkoech broke the 5 km world record in Monaco on Sunday, February 14, 2021, in 14'43 ". She improved on the previous record in a mixed race of 14'48 '' set by Caroline Kipkirui in 2018, and is also a second faster than Sifan Hassan's record of 14''44 for a women-only race, since the 5 km was introduced as a world record in November 2017. Beatrice also holds the world record for the 3000 m steeplechase in 8'44''32 since 2018, also set in Monaco.
After a 2020 sports calendar disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and in particular the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, the 2021 program promises to be very rich.