GOLD 🥇: CHEPTEGEI 🇺🇬 IS OLYMPIC 10,000M CHAMPION

Cheptegei to get sh100million prize 

Men’s 10,000m ✨

🥇 Cheptegei 🇺🇬
🥈 Berihu Aregawi 🇪🇹
🥉 Grant Fisher 🇺🇸

Paris, France | THE INDEPENDENT & IAAF | Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei run a perfectly times race, to win the 10,000m gold in an Olympic record of 26:43.14 on Friday night.

He becomes the first Ugandan to win the 10,000m gold, and now at 3 medals, is the country’s greatest ever Olympian.

The men’s 10,000m title at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games finally earns him the sport’s highest honour at his favoured distance. It also earns his sh100million that government promised for a gold medal.

“I can’t describe the feeling,” Cheptegei told IAAF. “I’ve wanted this for a long time. When I took silver in Tokyo, I was disappointed. I wanted just to win the 10,000m.”

“It’s the dream of young people to achieve what they want to achieve in life. Barely 16 years ago when I was watching the great Kenenisa Bekele win in Beijing, it was something that grew in my heart. I said, one day, one time, I want to be Olympic champion.”

The world record-holder had won the past three world titles over 10,000m, but wound up with silver at the last Games, beaten by Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega.

This time, however, he timed his race to perfection and hit the front with less than 600 metres to go before sprinting to glory on the final lap, winning in an Olympic record.

Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi took silver in 26:43.44 and USA’s Grant Fisher earned bronze in 26:43.66.

List of medalists of previous Ugandan medalists