Who can stop Uganda’s Cheptegei?

Gold Coast, Australia | THE INDEPENDENT & AFP | Uganda’s long distance ace Joshua Cheptegei will find himself in an unfamiliar position as he goes for gold on day one of track and field at the Commonwealth Games.

Cheptegei has been the dark horse in the major events he has competed in since last year but now finds himself as the man to beat when the 5000m final starts at 9.40am Sunday. That has been the position Mo Farah has been in for the past five years.

The pressure to succeed ended in disaster at the World cross country championships in Kampala early last year, but that was followed by a stunning silver behind Mo Farah in the World Championships later, which indicated Cheptegei is getting wiser with each race.

Cheptegei has been formidable since, running the  world’s second fastest 15k race ever at the Seven Hills Race Zevenheuvelenloop in Nijmegen, The Netherlands in November before dominating all the cross-country races he participated in this year.

He will be backed by Thomas Ayeko and Phillip Kipyeko who will stake their own claim to medals in Sunday’s race.

The 5km – 12.5 laps – race suits Cheptegei’s flat out style and bar a surprise, should provide Uganda’s first medal at the Commonwealth Games.

Mo Farah is absent but out to stop Cheptegei will be the Kenyans, who are the best bet to challenge the Ugandan despite sending a new-look side after many of their top performers opted out.

The Kenyans, also recovering from a major doping scandal which prompted wide-ranging reforms, have sent a new crop of runners to Australia’s Gold Coast.

Only three of Kenya’s gold medallists survive from 2014, when they topped the athletics medals table, with David Rudisha, Asbel Kiprop and Ezekiel Kemboi among those missing.

“This is an entire young team who are hungry to chart their own destiny,” head coach Japheth Kemei told AFP in Nairobi ahead of the competition, which gets underway on Sunday.

“Kenyan athletics is now in a period of transition, but we are happy that there will be a continued athletics success as we plan for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in two years time.”

“The spirit is very high in the team,” coach Julius Kirwa said.

“I am very happy with the youngsters, and even though most of them have little or no experience at the top level, we should be able to fine-tune them physically and physiologically to be ready for the show.

“I believe we will do better than we did in Glasgow,” said Kirwa, who coached Kenya to the top of the table at the 2015 world athletics championships in Beijing.

Kenya was placed on the IAAF doping watchlist in 2016 after being ruled non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following a string of drug scandals.

Since January, elite athletes have been under the watch of a select team of doctors appointed by the International Association of Athletics Federations and Athletics Kenya.