Cheptegei voted USPA Personality of February

NILE SPECIAL USPA PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH

KAMPALA - Joshua Cheptegei, who recently set a new 5km world record of 12:51 minutes, has been voted  the USPA Personality of the Month of February, edging runner Juliet Chekwel, swimmer Kirabo Namutebi and boxer Shadir Musa Bwogi.

Cheptegei, who has had a phenomenal last 12 months, once again came out on top at the monthly awards held in Kampala on Monday.

The 23-year-old's latest triumph is a signature on a script that documents his victories since the beginning of 2019. He became the world cross country champion in Denmark, a 5,000 Diamond League winner in Switzerland and a 10,000m world champion in Qatar, on top of setting a new 10km world record of 26:38 in Spain and that of the 5km in France.

In the USPA vote, Cheptegei won with 465 points.

He easily beat Chekwel, who received 300 points. Chekwel raised the bar a little higher by setting a new national record in the women's marathon when she won the Zurich Marathon in Spain last month.

She beat everyone else in the 36th Zurich Marathon with a time of 2:23:13 to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Another contender for the USPA monthly honours was young swimming sensation Namutebi, although her 270 points were not enough to get her there.

Bwogi, the captain of Uganda's national boxing team, The Bombers, garnered 265 points. He qualified for the Tokyo Olympics due in July and will be the only boxer at the summer event.

He made the cut through a box-off card on the last day of the Africa Olympic Boxing Qualifiers in Senegal's capital Dakar on Saturday.

He was too good for Ghana's Jessie Lartey, and a 5-0 unanimous points decision victory earned him Uganda's only boxing spot at the upcoming Olympics.