Uganda’s athlete Joshua Cheptegei put up a spirited last minute run to catch up with the eventual men’s 10000m final winner, Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega at Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Friday 30 July, 2021.
Barega, 21, timed his last-lap sprint to perfection to win the first athletics gold of the Olympic Games in 27min 43.22sec.
Joshua Cheptegei claimed silver medal in 27:43.63 with teammate Jacob Kiplimo taking bronze medal in 27:43.88 as Uganda registered its first medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games.
Another Ugandan athlete, Stephen Kissa pulled out of the race just over 19 minutes for reasons yet to be known.
Jacob Kiplimo, the youngest-ever Ugandan Olympian when he ran the 5,000 heats in 2016 Rio Olympics as a 15-year-old, posted a time of 27:43.88 to secure bronze in the first athletics medal event of the Games.
Cheptegei said he was experiencing mixed emotions.
“I have two feelings. One is that I’m very happy to have won an Olympic silver medal today,” he told reporters.
“But the other side of me is really not satisfied with the result because I came here expecting to win a gold.”
Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo are natives of Kapchorwa in Uganda’s eastern highlands, on Mount Elgon.
Thanks to the influence of 2012 Olympic marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich for his success.
Stephen Kiprotich is the key athlete in Uganda, and Kapchorwa specifically, and a role model for the new generation like Joshua Cheptegei and other youngsters who are coming up now.
Uganda key athletes train at home grounds in Kapchorwa.
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