Agnes Ngetich and the State of Women’s Athletics
If Valencia’s athletics community were serious about their goal to become one of the fastest cities in the world, then the 10K Valencia Ibercaja earlier this week marked another assertive step in the right direction. Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich produced the performance of the day – and perhaps of her lifetime – when she crossed the line in 28:46 to become the first woman to break 29 minutes for 10km on any surface. The 22-year-old equalled the current 5km world record with her halfway split of 14:13 before continuing on to obliterate the 10km world record by 28 seconds. Emmaculate Anyango, who was somewhat overshadowed by her compatriot, finished second and also dipped under the 29-minute barrier with a time of 28:57, while Lilian Rengeruk ensured a Kenyan sweep of the medals when she crossed the line in 29:32 to finish third.
"Honestly, my clear goal was to break the world record, but 28:46 is beyond any expectations. When I saw 14:13 at halfway it didn't scare, it just motivated me a lot to keep on pushing until the end. I have no words to describe what I feel now."
Ngetich will now turn her attention to the World Cross Country Championships in two months’ time before focusing on the Paris Olympics in August.
Ngetich’s performance is not the only instance of a women’s world record being broken in such dramatic fashion. In June last year, we saw Faith Kipyegon smash the 1500m and 5000m world records before doing the same in the mile a month later. In September, Gudaf Tsegay broke that 5000m record again, while on the roads, Tigst Assefa lowered the marathon world record by more than two minutes. To end the year, Beatrice Chebet broke the 5km world record in the streets of Barcelona (a mark she now shares with Ngetich). Recently, it does seem as though the best female distance runners are able to break world records at will. Why is this?
One explanation examines the advancement of gender equality in many East African nations. It may very well be that the athletes making their way onto the international stage from these countries were afforded more opportunities in their youth for athletic development than generations past. In the same breath, it’s likely that more girls are considering a career in athletics from a younger age, and therefore more are turning professional in adulthood. It’s been decades since East African athletes took up near-permanent residence on distance running podiums around the world on both the men’s and women’s sides. However, until recently, the dominance on the men’s side has been more noticeable than on the women’s: that may no longer be the case.
Richard Nerurkar, co-founder of the Great Ethiopian Run, points out that Ethiopia now has a female president, as well as a female athletics federation chief. He also explains the development of running in the country.
“In 1992 and again in 2000, Derartu Tulu won the Olympic 10,000m title. In that decade, there were very few female distance runners in Ethiopia compared with men. But I think what we’ve seen in Ethiopia over the last 20 years is perhaps not an explosion but so many more women taking part and training seriously.”
Kenyan journalist, Evelyn Watta, echoes his sentiment.
“If you look at the political landscape in Kenya and Ethiopia, now we have more women in parliament and more women represented. We now have female athletics coaches coming up, and female administrators, too, which certainly helps. Simple things such as discussing periods within Kenyan sporting society was taboo, but not anymore. Even saying that an athlete is pregnant is a new thing, because it was very common in media circles to say: ‘Oh she’s injured.’ You’d ask: ‘What kind of injury?’ and they would say: ‘Oh, a female injury.’ So, I think some small things are changing, and giving women the power they need to show their best when they run.”
As for the motivation for starting in the sport in the first place, that is a little easier to point to.
Take, for example, Assefa’s marathon performance in Berlin last year, for which she was awarded 100,000 euros. In a country where the average annual salary for a professional amounts to just 960 euros, it’s easy to see the allure of professional competition. All it takes is one strong international showing, and an athlete can quite literally be set up for life. Coupled with the cultural significance of the sport in these nations, it becomes clear why so many try their hand at turning professional.
Tigst Assefa obliterates the women’s marathon world record at the 2023 Berlin Marathon
(Photo Credit: ©SCC EVENTS/Jean-Marc Wiesner)
With that being said, East African women winning international races is hardly a new phenomenon, and it’s likely that the recent breakthroughs in the sport are the result of a few different factors. Another one of these is perhaps the mental aspect that accompanies running a world record. When Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile, he remarked, “Après moi, le dèluge.” He was right - within weeks, his record was broken. It’s possible that when Ngetich watched Assefa take more than two minutes off the marathon world record, or witnessed Faith Kipyegon lower the mile world record by five seconds in one race, that a groundbreaking performance in her own event no longer seemed so unbelievable.
Another factor that cannot be ignored is the evolution of shoe technology. In 2017, Nike launched a shoe called the Zoom Vaporfly 4% - so named for the 4% increase in energy return it gives to the wearer. In doing so, they ignited what has come to be known as the supershoe wars: a battle in which, up until now, they have been the clear victors. However, six years on, Adidas has mounted a somewhat overdue, but nonetheless impressive, rebuttal in their Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1. This single-use marathon shoe donned the feet of Assefa as she stormed to a new marathon world record in September. The company's success in the supershoe space has been sustained by Ngetich, who broke the 29-minute barrier wearing a pair of Adizero Takumi Sens. That being said, attributing performances to shoes alone does a disservice to the athlete: you cannot put on these shoes and become a world-beater overnight. What’s more, if shoes could definitively explain all the women’s world records we have witnessed of late, then we should have seen men’s records tumble in similar fashion (which we have not).
The Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4%: the world’s first supershoe
This has led some to question whether these performances are less the result of technological advancement as they are pharmaceutical enhancement. These doubts are inevitable whenever breakthroughs occur but are particularly prominent in a sport that is still feeling the impacts of the state-funded doping schemes of Eastern Europe and Asia that cast a shadow over athletics during the 80s and 90s. In recent years, numerous star athletes - most of whom have hailed from East Africa - have been banned for the use of performance-enhancing drugs. That being said, none of the current world record holders have ever failed a drug test, and, similar to the shoe hypothesis, if this was the only explanation for these records, then we should be seeing groundbreaking performances on the men’s side as well. Nevertheless, it’s a tricky space, and hopefully one that we do not have to revisit any time soon.
It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why women’s world records have been falling so often and so dramatically over the past year. But one thing is clear: Agnes Ngetich will be a name to remember as we head into 2024.