2024 World Rankings: Kenya’s Ebenyo to defend Okpekpe race title as world’s 10,000m, 10km number one

Reigning Okpekpe International 10km champion and record holder, Daniel Ebenyo is the number one ranked athlete in the world in the 10,000m and 10km events and will likely defend his title at the historic race as the best in the world.

Ebenyo, who has signified his intention to defend the men’s 10km title he won last year, moved to the top of the World Athletics ranking in mid-January, supplanting Uganda’s reigning world 10,000m champion, Joshua Cheptegei who had ended 2023 as the best in the event. He leads the Ugandan by a healthy 20 ranking points.

Interestingly, the Kenyan was ranked the ninth best in the world coming to the Okpekpe race last year with Cheptegei the undisputed leader of the pack. He was however the first sub-27 minutes runner to ever grace any World Athletics label 10km road race in Nigeria.

Ebenyo, silver medalist in the 10,000m behind Cheptegei at last year’s World Athletics Championships has won all three events he has competed in so far this year and is focused on turning his global and continental silver medals into gold starting with the African Athletics Championships in Douala, Cameroon in June and at the Olympics in Paris, France in July/August.

The 28 year old is also keen to make history as the first man to successfully defend an Okpekpe race title and break the 28:28 course record he set last year, probably making history as the first man in race history to break 28 minutes.

The World Road Running Championships silver medalist has told the Okpekpe race media of his intention to Nigeria, ‘his second home’ and will be hoping the race sets him on the right path to global conquests at Championships and games level.

Last year, he rode on his historic success at Okpekpe to make the podium at two global events viz the World Athletics Championships and the World road running championships. He also made a winning debut at the Wanda Diamond League, winning the 10,000m event at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.

This year’s gold label Okpekpe International 10km road race will hold on May 25,2024 in Okpekpe in Edo state, Nigeria.

The race, in its 10th edition is the first road running event in Nigeria to have its race course measured by a World Athletics accredited course measurer and the first in West Africa to be granted a World Athletics label.

It is also the first gold label 10km road race to be organised in Nigeria.