Cheptegei doesn't need a 5000m, 10,000m double — Ruiter

Feb 05, 2023

At last year’s World Athletics Championships, he won gold in the 10,000m, only to suffer an injury during the 5000m final and finish in ninth position

Joshua Cheptegei pictured with his coach Addy Ruiter during training in Kapchorwa.

Charles Mutebi
Sports journalist @New Vision

The fastest man on record across 5000m and 10,000m, Joshua Cheptegei has etched his name among the legends of long-distance running.

But when it comes to comparisons with the likes of Kenenisa Bekele, who held both records before Cheptegei’s historic 2020 campaign, the Ugandan superstar still lacks one thing – a major double.

Winning the 5000m and 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships or Olympics has long been considered one of the marks of greatness in long-distance running.

The closest Cheptegei has come was the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, where he won gold and silver in the 5000m and 10,000m respectively.

At the 2016 Olympics, he was not a contender as Mo Farah, who completed his fourth consecutive major double in Brazil, was still untouchable. During the 2017 World Athletics Championships, Cheptegei did one race and won 10,000 silver. At the 2019 edition, he won his first major gold, again in the 10,000m, but chose not to run the 5000m.

At last year’s World Athletics Championships, Cheptegei won gold in the 10,000m, only to suffer an injury during the 5000m final and finish in ninth position.

With Cheptegei’s switch to marathon running planned for 2025, has time run out on his double hopes? Does he even need to win it, anyway, to enhance his case?

“For me personally, it is not important to win the double,” says Cheptegei's coach Addy Ruiter. “In my opinion, that is something that comes more from the media. The most important thing is that you are winning one title.

“Alright, it’s nice when you can win another title, but we are in a generation with so many strong runners. There are some athletes focusing only on the 5000m, and that makes it much more difficult to win both of them.”

Ruiter adds, “From my side as a coach there has never been pressure (on Cheptegei) to do the double. We know he won the gold in the 5000m in Tokyo, but his strongest race is the 10,000m.”

Does that mean Cheptegei will concentrate on the 10,000m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships and Paris Olympics next year?

 “We will see that around the time,” explains Ruiter. “He will do the double only when he is fit. He did well in Tokyo, although he missed out on gold in the 10,000m. So, the idea is still to go for the double again but first we will wait and see how he comes out of the 10,000m.”

Bekele, long considered the greatest long-distance runner, won the double at the 2008 Olympics.  

Comments

No Comment


(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});