In the past month, a multitude of track records have been broken, some of them standing for 20 years, while one only stood for five days.
Beatrice Chebet of Kenya set the women’s 5000-meter world record on a road course with a time of 13:54 in December of 2024.
Grant Fisher of the United States of America set the indoor record for 3000 meters and 5000 meters with times of 7:22.91 and 12:44.09, respectively, beating the original record of 7:23.81 set in 2023 and 12:49.60 set in 2004.
“The one that impacted me the most was probably the 3k world record because, you know, the best kicker in the world, Cole Hocker, and then Grant Fisher,” sophomore Brayden Nemec said. “Cole Hocker got out-kicked by Grant Fisher, which was crazy to see. One gold medalist and a national record holder in one race, which was crazy. Grant Fisher also went on to get the 5k world record, so Grant Fisher is on a roll right now.”
Yared Nuguse of the United States of America set the world record for the indoor mile (1609 meters) with a time of 3:46.63. He set a North American indoor record for 1500 meters with a time of 3:31.75 while the previous indoor mile record was 3:47.01, set in 2019.
In the same race, Cameron Myers of Australia set the Under-20 indoor mile and U20 indoor 1500 meter record with a time of 3:32.67.
Toshikazu Yamanishi of Japan set the world record for the 20-kilometer race-walking distance with a time of 1:16.10, beating the previous record set in 2015 by 26 seconds.
Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda set the half marathon world record with a time of 56:42, besting the previous record by 46 seconds where he averaged 4 minutes and 19 seconds per mile for 13.1 miles.
Josh Hoey set the 800-meter short track and 1000-meter short track American record with a time of 1:43.24 and 2:14.48.
Swedish-American pole vaulter Armand Duplantis beat his own world record for the 11th time with a height of 6.27 meters or 20 feet 7 inches.
The indoor season has ended, but the outdoor season is approaching, with a bigger track and more records for athletes to break.
