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Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge and Beatrice Chepkoech headline the list.
Over the years Kenya has been synonymous with churning out world beaters in athletics who have shuttered records and flown the country's flag high across the world. Here are four of the current world record holders.
1) DAVID RUDISHA
Rudisha is the 800m world record holder. He had broken Wilson Kipketer's 800m record of 1:42.67 and lowered it to 1:41.09 at the ISTAF Berlin meeting. Just a week later, he broke the record again at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Rieti where he clocked 1:41.01 to cross the finish line.
At the 2012 London Olympics, he produced one of the most astonishing displays to clinch the 800m title in a world record time of 1:40.91.
2) BEATRICE CHEPKOECH
On a night of sensational running, Chepkoech produced a culminating performance at the 2018 Diamond League meeting in Monaco to win the women’s 3000m Steeplechase and set a new world record of 8:44.32.
That obliterated Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet’s record of 8:52.78 which was set during the 2016 Diamond League meeting in Paris. Before Jebet broke the record, Russia’s Gulnara Galinka’s had held the record for eight years.
3) BRIGID KOSGEI
Kosgei is the women’s world marathon record holder. Kosgei ran a tactical race at the 2019 Chicago Marathon to win the race in 2:14:04. The run whacked 81 seconds off the previous women’s mark which had been there for 16 years.
During the 2003 London Marathon, Great Britain’s Paula Radcliffe had set a new world record in a time of 2:15:25. Before Radcliffe’s record, Catherine Ndereba was the record holder after timing 2:18:47 at the 2001 Chicago Marathon.
4) ELIUD KIPCHOGE
Famously known as the greatest marathoner of all time, Kipchoge is the world marathon record holder.
The Olympic marathon champion at the 2018 Berlin Marathon timed 2:01:39 to break compatriot’s Dennis Kimeto’s record of 2:02:57 that had only lasted four years (set at the 2014 Berlin Marathon).
In 2019 at Vienna’s Prater park, he clocked 1:59:40, becoming the first person in recorded history to break the two-hour barrier over a marathon distance but the record was not ratified because standard competition rules for pacing and fluids were not followed.
At the 2022 Berlin Marathon, Kipchoge broke his own world record by clocking 2:01:09 to cross the finish line.
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