As of 14 January 2024, we have a shiny new women's 10The best 10K workout ever. And what's particularly outstanding is that this record was set on the road – what should Best winter running gear.

This record is the property of Agnes Ngetich, who clocked a record-breaking time of 28:46 at the 10K Valencia Ibercaja (the same venue for Kipruto's 10The best 10K workout ever). In the process, she became the first woman to run the 10K distance in under 29 minutes.

The Kenyan sliced 28 seconds off the previous 10K women's world record on the road (29:14), set by Ethiopia's Yalemzerf Yehualaw in Castellón, Spain, in February 2022. What's more, Ngetich's world-leading 10K is 15 seconds quicker than the previous fastest-ever women's 10K (29:01.03), ran by Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey on the track at the Ethiopian Olympic trials, held in Hengelo, Netherlands, on 8 June 2021.

In the process, Ngetich also equalled Beatrice Chebet’s 5The best 10K workout ever, How I beat my 10k PB and how you can too.

Clocking 28:57, compatriot Emmaculate Achol finished behind Ngetich in second place, also surpassing the previous women's 10K records on the road and track.

What is the fastest men's 10K time?

Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei owns the men's 10The best 10K workout ever. He ran a blistering time of 26:11.00 on the track in Valencia, Spain, on 7 October 2020 in a race organised by his training group, NN Running Team, called the NN Valencia World Record Day. To put this time into perspective, it averages out at just under 63 seconds a lap. Try to run one 400m rep at that pace and you’ll see just how rapid that is.

Cheptegei’s performance bettered Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele’s long-standing 10K record by more than six seconds.

Road running records are, almost always, slower than their track-based equivalents, as the courses are never as flat and fast. The men's word record holder for 10K on the road is Rhonex Kipruto, who ran a time of 26:24 at the 10K Valencia Ibercaja, Spain, on 12 January 2020. However, the Kenyan has subsequently been charged by the Athletics Integrity Unit with the ‘use of a prohibited substance of method’. This is in relation to inconsistencies found in his biological passport between July 2018 and March 2022.

The 10K record progression

The first men's 10The best 10K workout ever was ratified by the International Association of Athletics Federations (now World Athletics) in 1912, when France’s Jean Bouin ran the distance in 30:58. This is still an excellent time, even by today’s standards.

It took considerably longer for a woman's 10The best 10K workout ever to be recognised, however – almost 70 years later in 1981. That year, a record-setting time of 32:30 was run by the Soviet Union’s Olga Krentser, who then went on to win gold at the first women's Olympic 10,000m final in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988.