'Uganda ready to defend world cross country title'

UGANDA | ATHLETICS | AUSTRALIA

National athletics coach Benjamin Njia has said the national team is ready to defend the World Athletics Cross Country Championships title.

In the last edition of the coveted championships, Uganda won the overall title following stellar performances by Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo.

The two world record champions and record holders combined to stylishly win gold (Cheptegei 31:40) and silver (Kiplimo 31:44) in the senior category, with their close friend, Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor, settling for the bronze medal.

Another Ugandan pair, recently crowned national mountain race championships champion Joel Ayeko and the supremely talented Thomas Ayeko, also stood up to the occasion to finish in the top 10.

Asked if the Ugandan team would be able to match up to the expectations of being the defending champion, Njia, responded affirmatively.

“This team has serial winners who have been in this position before and gone ahead to register back-to-back victories before. "So, I'm not worried,” Njia said.

It should be noted that mid-last year, Cheptegei was able to defend his World Athletics Championships title in Oregon, having won the previous edition hosted in Doha in 2019.

Half-marathon world champion Jacob Kiplimo has not been defeated in his last three consecutive games, not to mention his most recent double gold act at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

A country he returned to most recently to win the Great North Run 2022 on his debut after posting a time of 59:32.

“These two athletes and the other squad members preparing for the championships are mental monsters,” Njia said.

With less than a fortnight until the event, Njia is focusing the team’s training program on speed, work, strength, endurance, pacing, and psychological composition, among other areas.

“The target is to get them in the best shape possible, and we have what it takes to do that in the next remaining days,” the veteran tactician said.

Event is set for next month

The 2023 World Athletics Cross Country Championships will take place on February 18, 2023, in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia.

It will be the event's 44th edition and the second time after Auckland in 1988 that the championships will take place in Oceania. 

In December 2020, the event was postponed from 2021 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Australian travel restrictions.

Due to travel restrictions in Australia, the championships were postponed once more to September 2023.

 The World Athletics Cross Country Championships feature distances and categories such as 10 km for senior men and women, 8 km for junior men, 6 km for junior women, and a 4x2 km mixed relay.

 At the Trinity Biblical Institute, which has been acting as the national training camp lately, at least 26 athletes are camping in the high-altitude district of Kapchorwa, in the eastern region.

Besides Cheptegei, Kiplimo, Uganda will field a prudently gifted cohort of Samuel Kibet, Isaac Kibet, and Martin Kiprotich on the men’s senior team.

The senior women’s category features the likes of former Commonwealth Games 10km gold medalist Stella Chesang, 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Mercyline Chelangat, Rispa Cherop, Doreen Chesang, and Annet Chelangat.

In the junior category, Prisca Chesang, 19, the back-to-back world junior athletics championship bronze medalist who beat two world champions to win gold at the San Silvestre Valencia 10km race in Madrid earlier this year, is expected to be a strong contender.

Cheptegei has been selected yet again to captain the team alongside Kiplimo, while Mercyline Chelangat will use her vast international experience to lead the women in Australia.