{"id":9753,"date":"2026-02-22T20:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=9753"},"modified":"2026-02-22T20:36:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:36:22","slug":"kibet-and-gitonga-rcae-into-top-ten-of-world-all-time-lists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/kibet-and-gitonga-rcae-into-top-ten-of-world-all-time-lists\/","title":{"rendered":"Kibet and Gitonga race into top ten of world all-time lists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Harbert Kibet of Uganda and Kenyan Caroline Gitonga both moved into the top 10 on the world all-time lists while Yann Schrub and Megan Keith set European records at the 10K Facsa Castell\u00f3n road race in Spain earlier today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making his 10km debut, 20-year-old Kibet won the race in a world-leading 26:39, a time that makes him the fifth-fastest 10km runner in history \u2013 just one second slower than his compatriot Joshua Cheptegei, the multiple global gold medallist and world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kibet won by four seconds ahead of Schrub of France, who clocked 26:43 to beat Sweden\u2019s Andreas Almgren by two seconds and improve his rival\u2019s European record in the process. Almgren ran 26:45 in Valencia last month to improve his own European record and the world 10,000m bronze medallist matched that mark in Castell\u00f3n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gitonga improved her PB by more than a minute to win the women\u2019s race in 29:34 and move to joint ninth on the world all-time list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She won by 11 seconds ahead of her compatriot Nelvin Jepkemboi, while Ethiopia\u2019s Chaltu Dida was third in 29:50 and Great Britain\u2019s Keith was fourth in 30:07, taking one second off the European record set by her compatriot Eilish McColgan in Valencia. McColgan ran 30:35 on this occasion to finish sixth, one place behind Purity Gitonga (30:25), twin sister to winner Caroline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pacemaker Mike Foppen led a seven-strong leading men\u2019s pack through 5km in 13:23 and Almgren and Schrub remained to the fore as the group passed the 7km mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kibet, contesting the longest race of his career so far, started to make a move with around 1.5km remaining and he strode ahead, glancing over his shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Almgren and Schrub didn\u2019t respond and Kibet won clear in 26:39. Schrub won the battle for the runner-up spot and the European record, moving to sixth on the world all-time list, and he and Almgren were followed over the finish line by Kenya\u2019s Silas Senchura (26:58).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the women\u2019s race, Jepkemboi and Caroline Gitonga ran together through the 5km mark in 14:32. Jepkemboi then pushed ahead but she could not maintain that lead and Caroline passed her with what ended up being a winning move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Caroline built an 11-second lead by the finish line, crossing clear in 29:34 to improve on the PB of 30:46 she set when finishing eighth in Castell\u00f3n last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keith, meanwhile, beat the two athletes who had previously held the European record \u2013 McColgan and Belgium\u2019s Jana Van Lent, who ran 30:10 in Nice last month and clocked 30:50 in Castell\u00f3n. Lonah Chemtai Salpeter\u2019s 30:05 from Tilburg in 2019 remains the fastest time achieved by a European athlete but that mark was not ratified as a European record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Leading results<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Women<\/strong><br>1 Caroline Gitonga (KEN) 29:34<br>2 Nelvin Jepkemboi (KEN) 29:45<br>3 Chaltu Dida (ETH) 29:50<br>4 Megan Keith (GBR) 30:07<br>5 Purity Gitonga (KEN) 30:25<br>6 Eilish McColgan (GBR) 30:35<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Men<\/strong><br>1 Harbert Kibet (UGA) 26:39<br>2 Yann Schrub (FRA) 26:43<br>3 Andreas Almgren (SWE) 26:45<br>4 Silas Senchura (KEN) 26:58<br>5 Biniyam Melak (ETH) 27:10<br>6 Bereket Nega (ETH) 27:39<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harbert Kibet of Uganda and Kenyan Caroline Gitonga both moved into the top 10 on the world all-time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[50,347],"class_list":["post-9753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-athletics","tag-road-race"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet.jpg",1094,615,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet-768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet-1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet.jpg",1094,615,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet.jpg",1094,615,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/category\/international\/\" rel=\"category tag\">International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Harbert-Kibet.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9756,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions\/9756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}