Africa-Press – Kenya. Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor and Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei were the talk of Bathurst town prior to the senior men’s 10km race at the Mountain Panorama racing track on Saturday.
However, little did they know was that another Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo had understudied them for a long time and was plotting their downfall. Kiplimo said in an interview that he heard people talking about the course and the weather but that was the least of his worries
He said he had prepared for everything after missing gold and settling for silver in 2019.”Today, I was determined to win gold and I am happy my dream has come to pass. I prepared well and nothing was going to stop me from claiming gold.
He said he was even lucky because the weather changed towards the finish and it started raining. “ This actually played to my advantage and I am happy.” This time round, it was Uganda again but a different cast with Kiplimo succeeding training partner Cheptegei.
The 22-year-old finished second in the senior men’s race in Aarhus four years ago while at the age of 18. But he earned his first senior global title 18 months later when winning at the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia. At the Tokyo Olympics, he was beaten to bronze in 10,000m.
Kiplimo won the race in 29:17 and was followed by Berihiu Aregawi who clocked 29:26. Cheptegei who was the pre-race favourite settled for fourth spot in 29:37 while Kamworor, another, favourite faded to fourth place in 29:37 also. Other Kenyans followed in the order—Kibiwott Kandie (29:57), Daniel Simiu (30:01) and Sabastain Kimaru (30:04)
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