President Museveni applauds Joshua Cheptegei for breaking the decade long record (10,000m) held by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele.
President Yoweri Museveni has joined a host of other Ugandans to congratulate distance runner, Joshua Cheptegei for breaking the decade long record held by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele by six seconds to set a new record.
“Congratulations to Joshua Cheptegei for setting a new 10,000m world record in Valencia. Uganda is proud of you as you continue to hoist our flag high,” Museveni tweeted read congratulating the 24-year-old runner.
On Wednesday night, Cheptegei broke the long-standing 10,000-metre world record in Valencia with a time of 26mins 11.00 seconds lowering the previous mark of 26min 17.53sec set by Kenenisa Bekele in 2005 in Brussels.
This was Cheptegei’s fourth success achieved in a space of less than a year after breaking the 10km road record in December, the 5km record in February in addition to the 5000m record on August, 14 in Monaco where he clocked 12min 35.35sec.
Cheptegei first came to the limelight when he took silver at the 2017 world championships in London when he was still just 20 years old.
Last year, he won a gold medal in Doha in addition to the world cross country championship he had already won five months earlier.
Up to Wednesday Cheptegei only had the 18th quickest time over the distance with a best in Doha of 26min 48.36secs, over half a minute outside the record.
While speaking about Wednesday’s glory, the distance runner said that the performance meant a lot to him and he aims to achieve even more victories in years to come with his mind only focused on making history globally.
“I think this [latest feat] lays a foundation of what can still happen and what I want to achieve in the years to come,” he told an interview after the Wednesday race.
“This performance means something great to me. We are trying to write history on the track again because we want to make people know that the track is still exciting and we want to give it all so that the sports lovers in the world have the benefit of the time by seeing us now,’’ Cheptegei said with all smiles up.
Meanwhile, Uganda has had great distance runners over years notably Stephen Kiprotic, female runner, Nzikuru among others but experts in the game of athletics believe Joshua Cheptegei is an outstanding talent because of his consistency in scooping victories at almost every race he participates in.
In an interview with the press sometime back, Joshua’s long-time manager Addy Ruiter said that his client is not only a special but an exceptional talent as compared to many athletes globally.
“Joshua is not just a talent but an exceptional talent. He is a smart guy, he knows what he is doing and understands what he has to do and why,’’ Ruiter described the runner.
