World champions Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo are busy preparing for the 2022 Great North Run, which will take place this Sunday (September 11) in the English city of Newcastle.

The Ugandan pair, who last competed in the same race in July this year in the 10,000m final at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, will meet again - this time on the road - for the half marathon.

Cheptegei, 25, is the reigning 10,000m and cross-country world champion. Kiplimo, who is four years younger, is the current world half marathon champion.

Cheptegei has since recovered from a calf and hamstring injury he suffered while competing in the 5,000m final in Oregon, where he finished ninth behind compatriot Oscar Chelimo, who took bronze.

Guided by his Dutch personal trainer Addy Ruiter, the 10,000m and 5,000m world record holder has been concentrating on his speed, endurance, tempo and finishing during training.

Cheptegei was not involved in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham due to that injury.

In Newcastle, he will compete alongside Kiplimo, a man who duly stepped in his shoes in Birmingham and ensured that Uganda retained the Commonwealth Games long-distance bragging rights.

Kiplimo, who holds the world record for the half marathon (57:31), returns to English soil a little over a month since his 10,000m and 5,000m golden triumph in Birmingham.

Ahead of Sunday's race, the 2017 world cross-country junior champion, has been engaged in intense training with his resident coach, Peter Chelangat, in his native Kapchorwa town in eastern Uganda.

The focus has been on speed, tempo, endurance and finishing.

The last time Kiplimo competed in the 21km was in February this year, when he set a new Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon course record in Dubai, clocking 57:56 on the mostly flat terrain.

Three months earlier, he had set a new world record over the same distance (57:31) at the EDB Half Marathon in Portugal's capital Lisbon.

Kiplimo and Cheptegei last competed in the same half marathon in 2020 at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland.

Here, Kiplimo took gold (58:49), Cheptegei finished fourth (59:21) while two other Ugandans, Victor Kiplangat and Stephen Kissa, finished the race in 16th (1:00.26) and 19th (1:00:34), respectively.