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KAMPALA, Uganda | Xinhua | The 10,000m Olympic gold medalist Joshua Cheptegei will take part in the 2024 Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon.
Uganda’s star runner Cheptegei retired from the track events after his win at the Paris Olympics and made it clear he will now shift to marathon.
“Cheptegei will take part in the 2024 Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon in India. He will use half marathons to prepare better ahead of big marathon events,” Dominic Otuchet, president of the Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF), told Xinhua on Wednesday.
Last weekend the Ugandan star finished second in 45 minutes and five seconds in the 38th edition of the Dam tot Damloop 10-mile race in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Otuchet explained that Cheptegei will need to participate in many half marathon races in order to quickly adapt to the road races. “We are very confident that Cheptegei will keep improving in the road races because he is a determined and disciplined athlete who knows how to be a champion,” added Otuchet.
Cheptegei, Uganda’s only gold medalist at Paris 2024, will also set his focus on qualifying for the marathon at the Tokyo World Athletics Championships in 2025.
To secure his spot, he will need to clock a marathon time of under 2:06:30 in a qualifying race next year. ■
