Interview with Winny Chebet - the 5000m women pace setter

Winny Chebet training with Timothy and Vincent Keter at Nyayo stadium

29 year old Winny Chebet is the reigning 1500m African champion and 1500m gold medalist at the 2018 IAAF Continental Cup. She is part of Rongai Athletics Club and usually trains with Timothy Cheruiyot and the rest.

This Friday in Monaco she has a task to pace the 5000m women’s field which has Sifan Hassan, Hellen Obiri and Beatrice Chepkoech. She will be taking them through the first and possibly faaaast 2000m. And she is doing this after coming back from injury. We caught up with her and asked her how she’s feeling:

Enda: You are in Monaco, how well prepared are you?

Winny: I have prepared well, I am going to pace 5000m and I hope I will do well and deliver something good because I had a break for two weeks due to an injury but now I am back, it is not so bad. I was picked by Monaco to pace. It is a big challenge for me. I have never run in Monaco but maybe there after I will go to Stockholm to run 1500m.

Enda: It is interesting because the 5000m field is very strong, there is Sifan Hassan, Hellen Obiri, Beatrice Chepkoech,

Winnie: Yeah, I am going to pace for very big champions, Hellen Obiri, Sifan and Beatrice, and even me I am strong, I am hoping to do something good for them so that they can enjoy and get a good time in 5000m.

Enda: Have you ever paced before?

Winny: Yes I have 3000m in Doha (Diamond League)

Enda: And now ready to pace the 5000m?

Winny: Yeah, I am ready to go to pace in Monaco because I am pacing for 2000m. When I was in 3000m I paced up to 1600m.

Enda: With that strong field, what kind of result do you expect?

Winny: I will pace up to 2000m which will be around 5.20 minutes crossing it, so I think maybe they can run faster than that maybe around 13 minutes something. And Monaco is a fast course.

**Enda notes** The women’s 5000m world record is 14:11.15 held by Tirunesh Dibaba, anything lower than that will be a very faaaast race. And Winny passing through 2000m in 5.20 will be faster than Genzebe Dibaba’s record of 5:23.75 at the same distance.