Uganda’s Cheptegei misses medal, finishes 8th in 5,000m final

Saturday
Men’s 1500m final – Musagala finished 11th

Men’s 5000m final – Cheptegei 8th

Sunday 

Men’s Marathon final 3.30pm

Solomon Mutai, Jackson Kiprop and Stephen Kiprotich

Joshua Cheptegei run the race of his life in the 5000m final, but it was not enough as he finished 8th in a race won by Mo Farah. There were initially three disqualifications, which pushed the Ugandan from 9th to 6th -pending an appeal by American Paul Chelimo whose silver medal had been taken away.

Officials finally reinstated two of the three disqualified, putting Cheptegei in 8th.

Cheptegei was among the leaders until the final 400 meters where he failed to match the pace, finishing in 13:09.17. His best time in the 5000m 13:00.60.

Uganda has been in the final of this race for the past two games, with Moses Kipsiro finishing 4th in Beijing and 15^th in London.

Winner of the race Saturday night was Britain’s Mo Farah who became the first man since Finland’s Lasse Viren in 1976 to retain two Olympic distance titles.

After retaining the 10,000m title last week, Farah produced an exemplary race to win a second 5km gold in 13min 03.30sec.

REVISED RESULT

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	MARK	DETAIL
1	2452	Mohamed FARAHGBR	13:03.30
2	3057	Paul Kipkemoi CHELIMOUSA	13:03.90	PB
3	2396	Hagos GEBRHIWETETH	13:04.35
4	2188	Mohammed AHMEDCAN	13:05.94
5	3085	Bernard LAGATUSA	13:06.78	SB
6	2444	Andrew BUTCHARTGBR	13:08.61	PB
7	2175	Albert Kibichii ROPBRN	13:08.79
8	3015	Joshua Kiprui CHEPTEGEIUGA	13:09.17
9	2162	Birhanu BALEWBRN	13:09.26	PB
10	2343	Abrar OSMANERI	13:09.56
11	3089	Hassan MEADUSA	13:09.81
12	2395	Dejen GEBREMESKELETH	13:15.91
13	2896	Elroy GELANTRSA	13:17.47
14	2048	Brett ROBINSONAUS	13:32.30
15	2825	David TORRENCEPER	13:43.12
	2393	Muktar EDRISETH	DQ R 163.3b

Tweets about Cheptegei

Sunday 

Men’s Marathon final 3.30pm

Solomon Mutai, Jackson Kiprop and Stephen Kiprotich

The Ugandan team in Rio is in exactly the same position they were at the last Olympic Games – one day to the closing ceremony, no medal won.

Like at the last games, everyone else in team Uganda had simply participated and it had been left to the track and field team to compete. History is repeating itself, with the athletics long distance races the last hope the country is holding onto for glory of any kind.

The onus now moves from the nineteen-year-old 5,000m runner Joshua Cheptegei to the Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich, 27, and his marathon team, to change that. The two races will be just 12 hours apart.

Like at London 2012, Kiprotich could be the throw of the last dice only that this time he will not have the surprise element. The surprise element could actually come from his colleagues in that race Solomon Mutai and Jackson Kiprop.

Tweets about kiprotich

Mutai and Kiprotich will be the last Ugandans in action Sunday. Uganda is yet to win a medal. PHOTO IAAF

The Marathon on last day

Uganda will field its most experienced team when the marathon starts, 12 hours after Cheptegei’s race.

The trio of Kiprotich, Kiprop and Mutai have competed at the very top level for the last five years.

Kiprotich has since London 2012 added the 2013 world title to his accolades, while Mutai snatched bronze at the last world championships in Beijing.

Kiprop on the other hand has finished 10^th in the last two world championships.

Favourite in the marathon is Kiprotich’s training partner Eliud Kipchoge. Kipchoge is chasing the final piece of his Olympic medal collection at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Kipchoge has a 5000m silver medal from Beijing 2008 and a bronze in the same event at Athens 2004. He missed selection for London 2012 and then made the switch to marathon. He has been the outstanding road runner since then.

Here’s the #Rio2016 Marathon course. The Women’s & Men’s races will be on August 14 and 21, respectively. #Athletics pic.twitter.com/h2U0qeEuk5

— Rio 2016 (@Rio2016_en) August 11, 2016

Uganda’s record in the Olympics

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1956 Melbourne	0	0	0	0
1960 Rome	0	0	0	0
1964 Tokyo	0	0	0	0
1968 Mexico City	0	1	1	2
1972 Munich	1	1	0	2
1976 Montreal	did not participate
1980 Moscow	0	1	0	1
1984 Los Angeles	0	0	0	0
1988 Seoul	0	0	0	0
1992 Barcelona	0	0	0	0
1996 Atlanta	0	0	1	1
2000 Sydney	0	0	0	0
2004 Athens	0	0	0	0
2008 Beijing	0	0	0	0
2012 London	1	0	0	1
2016 Rio de Janeiro	0	0	0	0
2020 Tokyo	future event
Total	2	3	2	7

Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Athletics	2	0	1	3
Boxing	0	3	1	4
Total	2	3	2	7

Medal	Name	Games	Sport	Event
Silver	Eridadi Mukwanga	1968 Mexico City	Boxing	Men’s bantamweight
Bronze	Leo Rwabwogo	1968 Mexico City	Boxing	Men’s flyweight
Gold	John Akii-Bua	1972 Munich	Athletics	Men’s 400 metre hurdles
Silver	Leo Rwabwogo	1972 Munich	Boxing	Men’s flyweight
Silver	John Mugabi	1980 Moscow	Boxing	Men’s welterweight
Bronze	Davis Kamoga	1996 Atlanta	Athletics	Men’s 400 metres
Gold	Stephen Kiprotich	2012 London	Athletics	Men’s marathon