As the world ground to a halt in 2020, Ugandan athletics soared. It's almost as if it was all planned; like 'oh finally the lockdown is here, time to bust out that secret pandemic response'. 

What could have been a year of lost Olympic dreams, ended as one of the greatest in Ugandan athletics history, if not the greatest. Joshua Cheptegei produced one of the greatest seasons in the history of long-distance athletics: and in terms of the 5k, 5000m, and 10,000m records, the greatest season. And, yes, it is the greatest ever of any Ugandan sportsman.

Only time will bring a full appreciation of what Cheptegei did in 2020. Great athletes don't set three world records in a single season, never mind Ugandan athletes. But Cheptegei soared there, closer to his goal of going down as the greatest long-distance runner ever. 

That Cheptegei did it in a year like this made his achievements all the more impressive, but, of course, the COVID-19 lockdown is what ironically made it all possible. Cheptegei exploited the opportunity of extra training time afforded by the global lockdown to get in the shape of his life. 

With the help of his astute and assiduous coach Addy Ruiter, Cheptegei finetuned his body with scientific precision, so that there was almost no doubt the records would tumble. His near-identical splits in the 5000m and 10,000m record-breaking races awed observers, hailing an athlete of superhuman ability.

Cheptegei fell short of his remarkable standards in his last outing of the season, finishing fourth in his half-marathon debut at the World Championships in Gydnia, Poland. Still, he returned with a team bronze. Of course, the race was no disappointment for Uganda, thanks to Jacob Kiplimo.

The youngster, who had already won the 3000m in Rome and 5000m in Ostrava in blistering fashion, claimed gold at the World Half Marathon in championship record time. Kiplimo's winning time in the 3000m Rome race was a national record. And so was his time at the epic World Half Marathon showdown in Valencia, where he finished second behind Kenya's Kibiwott Kandie. In the unprecedented race, all the first four finishers fell below the previous world record.

Kiplimo, who won gold in the men's junior race at the 2017 IAAF World Country Championships, blossomed into a world champion in 2020, a critical development for the continued prosperity of Ugandan athletics. 

The kind of prosperity that Uganda had started the year hoping to enjoy on the biggest stage of all - the 2020 Olympics. With Cheptegei coming off a superlative 2019, Kiplimo returning from injury, Halima Nakaayi eager to prove herself once again, among others, Uganda's Olympic medal hopes had never looked brighter at the start of 2020.

And yet they seem brighter now. Cheptegei and Kiplimo are better for 2020, while Nakaayi, Winnie Nanyondo, Stephen Kissa, Ronald Musagala, Peruth Chemutai, Sarah Chelangat, and Uganda's other elite runners have all drawn inspiration from watching the record-setting feats of their compatriots.