Cheptegei has what it takes to be World Athletics Champion

Friday

1,500m heats – 9.40 pm (Esther Chebet)

10,000m final – 11.20pm (Cheptegei, Toroitich, Kurong)

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei has all it takes to be crowned a World Athletics champion.

At 20, he’s already tested glory as world junior champion, has one of the world’s top fastest times in the 5,000m and 10,000m, and has had three years – with the right mixture of highs and lows – to prepare himself.

Despite his credentials, Cheptegei will walk onto the London track at 11pm Friday as a Dark Horse candidate.

All eyes will be on Britain’s Mohamed Farah, and for a good reason. The Briton has already won world doubles (10,000m and 5000m) in 2013 and 2015 and Olympic doubles in 2012 and 2016.

Mo has toyed with his challengers in each of those past events, destroying them in the last of the 25 lap event. This is his final World Champs and all indications he could do it one last time.

Next in rank is World cross-country champion and world silver medallist Geoffrey Kamworor from Kenya, and if you add in the Ethiopians,  expect one of the fastest 10,000m times ever at the London World Athletics championships Friday night.

Mo has picked himself from the floor more than once to keep his doubles reign going so far, but tonight, any error will be punished, either by the Kenyan and Ethiopians, or the Ugandans.

Talking team tactics, Tim Toroitich and Martin Kurong will provide sufficient pace to back Cheptegei – and when opportunity comes, go for it themselves.

In steps Cheptegei with 3 reasons

Cheptegei will have three reasons to go for it tonight.

First, he will wish to put to rest the ghosts of the World Cross-Country Championships in Kampala, when he led the men’s race until the final lap and collapsed to end in 30^th position.

He misjudged his pace, the experts say, but it showed he will be comfortable with a furious pace at the start of the 10,000m in London. The final lap, again, will be telling.

Secondly, in the absence of Stephen Kiprotich, he carries the burden as Uganda’s main medal hope in London, venue of his senior’s greatest triumph – Gold in the 2012 Olympics.

Thirdly, other than Dorcus Inzikuru (Chile 2000 U-20 5000m gold & Helsinki 2005 3000mSC gold) , Uganda’s stars at world junior level have struggled to step up into the senior events. The likes of Boniface Kiprop struggled to match their junior performance at senior level.

Cheptegei has run few races since the world cross country championships debacle in March, but in each of them, he has shown he is fully recovered to take on the world’s best.

Cheptegei finished third in the 5000m last month at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, in an impressive personal best time of 12:59.83 to qualify for the 5000m Diamond League final in Zurich on August 24.

A month earlier, Cheptegei showed he is back on form with a 4th place, this time in the 3000m at the Paris Diamond Athletics League.

Who is Cheptegei?

Since Cheptegei joined university in August 2013 he started training seriously. He competed in national races and eventually represented his university at the World University Cross Country Championships where he took the gold medal. Joshua made his international debut at the TCS World 10k in Bangalore where he surprisingly took the second place behind World Half Marathon Champion Geoffrey Kamworor.

As the fastest athlete in the field, Joshua traveled to Eugene for the 2014 World Junior Championships. He lived up to the expectations and won the golden 10.000m medal for Uganda.

As a strong 10.000m athlete, Joshua wanted to break the Ugandan National Record over 10k in 2015. He chose the fast 10k course of Berlin to give it a try. After a slow start of the race, he pushed the pace in the second part of the race. He secured the win and set a new national record of 27:50!

After some time training in Kenya, Joshua went back to Uganda to train in Kapchorwa. He had a great start of 2016 by winning the Laredo 10k in a new national record of 27:46. Followed by a victory in the Carslbad 5k. He then moved his focus to the track for the rest of the year. Shanghai Diamond League 5000m was his first track race of the season. He took second in a new personal best of 13:00.60.

Cheptegei represented Uganda in the 10,000m and the 5000m at the Rio Olympics in 2016. He ran a strong 10,000m race and finished as number six in a new personal best of 27:10.06. One week later he finished 8th in the 5000m final.

*additional reporting by globalsportscommunication

LONDON 2017 10,000m start list

ORDER / LANE	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	SB 2017	PB
1	735	Abraham Naibei CHEROBEN	BRN	27:38.76	27:31.86
2	1142	Bedan Karoki MUCHIRI	KEN	27:40.3	26:52.36
3	1341	Polat Kemboi ARIKAN	TUR	27:42.55	27:35.50
4	908	Jemal YIMER	ETH	27:09.08	27:09.08
5	1148	Paul Kipngetich TANUI	KEN	27:42.6	26:49.41
6	685	Onesphore NZIKWINKUNDA	BDI
7	845	Bayron PIEDRA	ECU	29:03.93	27:32.59
8	1416	Shadrack KIPCHIRCHIR	USA	27:32.18	27:32.18
9	1277	Stephen MOKOKA	RSA	29:28.74	27:40.73
10	749	Mohammed AHMED	CAN	27:30.00	27:30.00
11	898	Abadi HADIS	ETH	27:08.26	26:57.88
12	1363	Timothy TOROITICH	UGA	28:02.23	27:31.07
13	1222	Zane ROBERTSON	NZL		27:33.67
14	1417	Leonard Essau KORIR	USA		27:29.40
15	852	Aron KIFLE	ERI	29:11.42	27:26.20
16	849	Nguse AMLOSOM	ERI	28:08.58	27:28.10
17	1425	Hassan MEAD	USA	27:34.38	27:33.04
18	853	Hiskel TEWELDE	ERI	28:26.50	27:30.50
19	655	Patrick TIERNAN	AUS	27:29.81	27:29.81
20	954	Mohamed FARAH	GBR	27:12.09	26:46.57
21	1359	Moses Martin KURONG	UGA	27:22.33	27:22.33
22	1130	Geoffrey Kipsang KAMWOROR	KEN	27:35.9	26:52.65
23	1356	Joshua Kiprui CHEPTEGEI	UGA		27:10.06
24	894	Andamlak BELIHU	ETH	27:20.57	27:20.57

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#IAAFworlds: Cheptegei to lead seasoned Ugandan athletics team to London champs https://t.co/hyElbR8Pbf pic.twitter.com/gTElRlJn2t

— The Independent (@UGIndependent) July 26, 2017