The 24-year-old Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei will attempt tomorrow in Valencia to break the world record in the 10,000 meters. The record of 26:17.53 is held by the Ethiopian, a legend and considered by many as the greatest distance runner of all time, Kenenisa Bekele, since 2005. Since then, no one has even come close to the mark and in the last decade no one has been within 25 seconds of that time. That's how big Cheptegei's challenge is.

But if anyone can do it right now, it's the Ugandan. In his last three races he has broken three world records. On December 1, 2019 he set the world record for 10k on the road with a time of 26:38 (this record was later surpassed by Rhonex Kipruto, but at the time it was WR). On February 16 he ran 5k on the road in Monaco and set a new mark of 12:51, breaking the previous record by more than 30 seconds. And finally, on August 13, he ran the 5,000 meters in 12:35.37 and broke by almost 2 seconds the record that Bekele himself had held since 2004.

The attempt will be this Wednesday at what has been called the NN Valencia World Record Day, in which in addition to Cheptegei, the Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey will attempt to dethrone Tirunesh Dibaba as the fastest woman in history in the 5,000 meters; to do so, she will have to run 12 seconds faster than her personal best of 14:23.14 (the record is 14:11.15 since 2008).

Gidey's attempt will be Wednesday at 1:34 p.m. Costa Rica time, while Cheptegei will take to the track at 1:55 p.m. Both races will be broadcast live from the NN Running Team Youtube channel.