Record-breaking year as Kenyan athletes dominate 2025

Amidst melodious Christmas carols and celebrations today, athletics stars who demolished records are expected to toast to the great achievements.

There are stunning victories, but then, there are world records that lit up 2025.

Surprising course records shattered this year on the track, field and roads also warmed the hearts of athletics enthusiasts.

Kenyan dominance is embedded in the more than 10 world records set in 2025.

The country’s athletes did not spare course records. They stylishly caused the fall.

Double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet became the first woman in history to run inside 14 minutes in 5,000m, clocking a world record of 13:58.06 at the Prefontaine Classic meet in Eugene in July.

The same day, three-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon confirmed her dominance in 1,500m, clocking 3:48.68 to shatter her previous record in the distance.

The two superstars dominated track racing in 2025 and delivered their world records in spectacular fashions.

But there was Agnes Ngetich, who emerged as a dominant force in road running.

Ngetich became the first athlete to break 30 minutes in a women-only 10km, smashing through that barrier with 29:27 at the Adizero Road To Records event in Herzogenaurach in April.

The 24-year-old star already held the 28:46 10km world record in the 10km mixed race.

“I’m so excited. I didn’t expect this (women-only world record. Last year I missed it by two seconds, so I wanted to come and attempt it again. I’m so proud of myself,” said Ngetich.

Athletes from neighbouring nations Uganda and Ethiopia joined their Kenyan counterparts in destroying world records.

Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, a two-time world Cross Country champion, timed a staggering 56:42 in Barcelona in February. Yomif Kejelcha held the previous 57:30 time.

Many athletics stars are basking in the glory of establishing course records across the globe.

But championship records set at the 2025 World Championships were special.

Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi won the men’s 800m at the Tokyo World Athletics Championships in a championship record of 1:41.86.

Wanyonyi repeated his Paris Olympics strategy of a gun-to-tape strategy momentum and claimed his world title in a record.

“I met (David) Rudisha (the 800m world record holder). He told me just to take a rest and focus, and everything is possible. The race was fast and hard. I knew it was going to be like this. I prepared myself mentally for it.

"I wanted to run a fast race, that's why I went to the lead. I wanted to run my personal best here and I am happy to walk away with the championship record. I knew lactic acid was going to hit me,” Wanyonyi was quoted by World Athletics.

Lilian Odira took down the oldest championship record in the book, the 42-year-old mark of 1:54.68 set by Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983. The Kenyan queen stopped the clock in 1:52.62 at the September event.

Faith Cherotich crossed the line in 8:51.59 to not just win her world title in Tokyo but to lower the championship record by more than a second.

At the World Marathon Majors, legendary athlete Hellen Obiri took almost three minutes off the previous course record held by Margaret Okayo of Kenya since 2003, at the 2025 New York City Marathon in November. She clocked 2:19:51.

She was joined on the podium by compatriots and former winners Sharon Lokedi (2:20:07) and Sheila Chepkirui (2:20:24), the defending champion.

Both Lokedi and Chepkirui finished inside the previous course record of 2:22:31.

“We had a very strong field. I told myself, let me try to do my best, let me push,” Obiri said after her win. She also earned Sh6.4 million for the course record.

Joyciline Jepkosgei improved the Valencia Marathon course record by almost a minute on December 7 after cutting the tape in 2:14:00.

She finished 43 seconds ahead of pre-race favorite, world champion Peres Jepchirchir.

Jepkosgei was not a stranger in Valencia. She set the second of her world half marathon records there in 2017.

“I’m so excited. I can’t believe I have won here. Definitely Valencia brings me good luck, as I set a world half marathon record here some years ago. I’m delighted to have bettered my PB by such a large amount (of time),” she told international media.

One long distance star pulled a major surprise at the Amsterdam Marathon in October.

Geoffrey Toroitich Kipchumba, in just his second race over the classic distance, smashed the course record at the 2025 Amsterdam Marathon, winning the race in 2:03:30.

Much attention was on defending champion and two-time winner Tsegay Getachew of Ethiopia and double Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda but Kipchumba turned the tables.

Global stars such as Swedish pole vault star Mondo Duplantis made record-breaking business this year.

The pole vault sensation has broken the world record 13 times in the last six years, taking the gold standard in his discipline from 6.16m to 6.29m in 2025.

Though he had previously set world outdoor bests and Diamond League records in the Swedish capital, Duplantis had never before managed to break the world record in front of his home crowd.

That changed in June, when he soared over 6.28m at the very first attempt, sending the crowd at Stockholm’s 113-year-old Olympic Stadium into raptures.

“I feel full to the brim right now. I’ve got a lot of family here. The first time I jumped in this stadium was when I was 11 years old, it was rainy and cold and I jumped right less than 4m – it was quite high for how young I was,” he said.

“I’m just going to enjoy this, enjoy the moment right now. There’s not much between me and 6.30m, technically. I’m just a perfect day away from it.”

Norwegian Karsten Warholm took the 400m hurdles by storm but a new innovation introduced at the elite level only this year - the 300m hurdles was a fresh challenge for many of the world’s best hurdlers.

Having shown his speed at the start of the season in China, Warholm’s next big test came on home soil at the Bislett Games in Oslo in June.

Warholm gave the packed crowd at the 60th edition of the Bislett Games in Oslo the performance they craved in the latest Diamond League meeting as he set a 300m hurdles world best of 32.67, becoming the first athlete to better 33 seconds in the event.

The indoor arena also offered global stars an opportunity to set world records.

USA’s Grant Fisher and his countryman Yared Nuguse kicked off the record-smashing moments with the 3000m and the Mile respectively at the Millrose Games, an Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in New York earlier in 2025.

With a high quality field assembled for the indoor showpiece, focus was on victory but the Americans powered to world records.

Fisher, a double Olympic bronze medallist, kicked at the final bend to overpower Olympic 1,500m champion Cole Hocker and won the contest in 7:22.91, improving on Lamecha Girma’s world indoor record of 7:23.81.

In February, Just five days after his US rival Yared Nuguse set a world indoor mile record in New York, two-time Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway went one better at the Meeting Hauts-de-France in Lievin, not only smashing the mile mark, but also taking down the world indoor 1,500m record along the way at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting.