Joshua Cheptegei remains winless on the track in 2023 but his performance in the Lausanne Diamond League should give him confidence for the rest of the season ahead.

He came within a second of defeating Ethiopian Berihu Arigawi who ran a blistering time of 12:40.45 ahead of Cheptegei who ran 12:41.61 to become the first and second fastest time of the year respectively.

Aregawi’s final sprint puts him in the top five of all time but Cheptegei who is the fastest man of the distance still has room for improvement on his finish. This was Cheptegei’s second track race in the 5000m of the year and even though he ran out of gas at the end it was a classic performance from him.

 Even though he is well off his record-breaking pace from 2020, if he can continue racing consistently by the time the world championships come around, he will be the man to beat. Cheptegei was able to improve his season's best from 12:53.81 set in Italy on June 2. He also improved on Kiplimo’s season best of 12:41.73 with some time until the World Championships both athletes are just warming into the season.

Chemutai qualifies for Worlds

Ugandan female Olympics gold medalist Peruth Chemutai managed to qualify for the world championships after her third-place finish in the women’s 3000m steeplechase in Lausanne. This was Chemutai’s first big race since her Commonwealth Games bronze medal run last year.  With qualification already in the bag, Chemutai can now look forward to being in top form ahead of the world championships.

There is a lot of work to do for all Ugandan competitors but so good as the Uganda athletics federation looks forward to a record number of athletes competing.