Who is Jacob Kiplimo? Flash Uganda Media looks at his biography, age, wife, family, tribe, relationship with Monesta Kiplimo, late Stephen Arap Simba Chebet (father) and late Grace Chesang (mother), IAAF World Cross Country Championship, 2016 Summer Olympics, early life and education of the Ugandan long-distance runner.
Jacob Kiplimo is a long-distance runner from Uganda. Kiplimo represented his country at the 2016 Rio Olympics at the age of 15.
He won the IAAF World Cross Country Championship junior title in 2017. At 18, he won the World Cross Country Championship silver medal in 2019.
Early life and Education
Jacob Kiplimo was born on November 14, 2000, to peasant parents late Stephen Arap Simba Chebet (father) and late Grace Chesang (mother) in Taragon, Benet Sub-county, Kween District, Uganda.
Kiplimo completed primary seven at Likil Primary School. While his peers continued with secondary education, he decided to concentrate on athletics.
He is married to Monesta Kiplimo with whom he has a daughter. He is the sixth of seven children of his mother. His father had three wives who all had children. Four of his brothers are athletes and three of his stepbrothers are national runners.
Career and Professional Work Experience
From 2015 to 2018, Jacob Kiplimo won bronze in the 10,000m at the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships at the age of fifteen, trailing fellow East Africans Rodgers Kwemoi and Aron Kifle. His time of 13:24:40 minutes for the 5000 metres in Rome that May was equally significant.
That was enough to meet the Olympic standard and earn Uganda a spot in the 2016 Summer Olympics. As a result, he became Uganda’s youngest Olympian.
Before the 2016 Olympics in Rio, he improved his 5000 m time to 13:19.54 minutes. As the competition’s youngest competitor, he ran only in the Olympic heats, finishing 11th in 13:30.40 minutes. At the age of 15, he was Uganda’s youngest-ever competitor at the Olympic Games.
On December 31, 2018, he won the San Silvestre 10k in a time of 26:41. The course did not count for the record because of the elevation drop. His victory broke the course record of 26:54 set by Eliud Kipchoge in 2006.
In 2019, Kiplimo defeated Joshua Cheptegei by placing first and second at the Ugandan Cross Country Championships on February 16 in Tororo. Kiplimo won the men’s senior 10 km race by 11 seconds over the 10,000 m world championship runner-up.
Kiplimo finished second in the senior men’s race at the 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, four seconds behind Joshua Cheptegei’s winning time of 31:40. He won gold in the team standings with Uganda’s Cheptegei.
Kiplimo competed in the Saint Silvester Road Race on December 31 and was defeated at the finish line by Kibiwott Kandie. Kandie won in 42:59, setting a new course record, and Kiplimo finished in 43:00.
In 2020, he won the 5000 m run in Ostrava, Czech Republic on September 8 in a time of 12:48.63, breaking his personal best of 13:13.64 set as a 16-year-old at the 2017 Prefontaine Classic. Selemon Barega finished second in 12:49.08. His personal best of 12:43.02 was the fifth fastest ever.
Kiplimo won a Diamond League 3000 m run in Rome on September 17 in a time of 7:26.64, the fastest 3000 m time since Kenenisa’s 7:25.70 in August 2007. Kiplimo’s time became the eighth fastest ever, while Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s time of 7:27.05 became the ninth.
On October 17, he won the Half Marathon World Championship in 58:49. The event, held in Gdynia, Poland, set a Ugandan and world championship record.
Kiplimo ran the Valencia Half Marathon on December 6. Kibiwott Kandie, the world silver medalist at the World Half Marathon Championships, was his opponent.
Kiplimo also faced Kenyan Rhonex Kipruto, who was making his half-marathon debut and held the world record in the 10K road race. Kandie made a strong move for victory with about one kilometre remaining, and Kiplimo could not keep up with Kandie’s surge.
Kandie, Kiplimo, Kipruto, and Alexander Mutiso of Kenya all broke the previous world record of 58:01, set by Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya in Copenhagen in September 2019.
Kandie finished in 57:32, a world record time, with Kiplimo close behind in 57:37. Kipruto also set a new world record in 57:49, while Mutiso finished in 57:59. His time of 57:37 was a Ugandan national record.
Kiplimo competed in the Campaccio-International Cross Country race in San Giorgio Su Legnano, Italy, on March 21, 2021. Despite falling during the race’s ninth kilometre, he won the 10 km in 29:07.
Nebret Melak of Ethiopia came in second, and Kiplimo’s younger brother Oscar Chelimo came in third. Kiplimo returned to the track on May 19th, competing in the 10,000 m at the 60th Ostrava Golden Spike.
He won the race by pulling away from Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew. Kiplimo finished in a personal best time of 26:33.93, making him the seventh fastest 10,000-meter performer of all time and the second fastest Ugandan in history behind world record holder Joshua Cheptegei’s 26:11.00.
Kiplimo set the half marathon world record of 57:31 in Lisbon on November 21, 2021.
Achievements and Awards
Jacob Kiplimo, then 16, produced a lifetime performance to win gold in the men’s U20 race at the 2017 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Kampala, the country’s first-ever gold medal at a World Cross, covering the 8 km course in 22:40 minutes.
Controversies
Due to an injury, Jacob Kiplimo did not compete in the 10,000 meters at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.
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