World Records Earns Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's Performance of the Week poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Mondo Duplantis

With 24.22 percent of the vote, Armand "Mondo" Duplantis won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Joshua Cheptegei with his second-place tally of 16.47 percent.

Duplantis did it again. A week after breaking a six-year-old world record in the pole vault in Torun, he added a centimeter to the record in Glasgow, jumping 20-3.25 (6.18m).

The impressive part about Duplantis' jump was by how much he cleared the bar. His hip height over the bar gives a hint of what he may be able to do in the future. And unlike his first world record, which he cleared on his second attempt, he was able to clear 6.18m on the first time of asking.

We will not have to wait long to see Duplantis compete again. He is set to jump Wednesday at the Meeting Haut-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Liévin. It is unreasonable to expect a world record in each of Duplantis' competitions, but one can hope.

Editors’ Choice: Joshua Cheptegei

There was another world record this week and it could be argued to be more impressive than Duplantis' pole vault record. Cheptegei cemented himself as the fastest road 5K runner in the world at the Monaco Run 5K, running 12:51.

The road 5K record has an interesting past. The then IAAF made it record eligible in 2018. However, it was the 2019 Monaco Run 5K that set the initial records.

As the men's record as been made faster over the past year, reaching 13:18 from the original 13:29, it always came with an asterisk. Before the event was made record eligible, the world best was 13:00, run twice at the Carlsbad 5000 by Kenya's Sammy Kipketer.

Following Sunday's Monaco Run 5K, that distinction is no longer necessary. Cheptegei took off at the sound of the gun and never needed to look back. He ran alone for the entire race, without the aid of pacemakers, to take the victory and the world record.

Cheptegei took nine seconds off the old world best and 27 seconds off the official world record.

Next up for Cheptegei is the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships, which are set for March 29 in Gdynia, Poland. It will be his racing debut at the half marathon distance.