Cheptegei lined up for scholarship
Sep 30, 2014
World junior athletics 10000m champion Joshua Cheptegei has been lined up for the Olympic Solidarity scholarship, which will help him get more training and exposure in order to help him qualify for Rio 2016 Olympics Games.
By Norman Katende
World junior athletics 10000m champion Joshua Cheptegei has been lined up for the Olympic Solidarity scholarship, which will help him get more training and exposure in order to help him qualify for Rio 2016 Olympics Games.
Cheptegei, who won a gold medal in Oregon in August , is top of the list that has six athletes, which was forwarded to the Olympic Solidarity for approval for the scholarship.
He made the list together with World Mountain running junior women gold medallist Stella Chesang and Commonwealth Games 800m bronze medallist Winnie Nanyondo. Others on the list are Nathan Ayeko, Dennis Opio and Abdallah Mande.
“These names were selected before the Commonwealth Games basing on the times run. They are basically for those promising runners that had not made it to the bigger events and if successful, they will be facilitated with technical assistance to help them gain exposure with a target of seeing them qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games ,” explained the federation president Domenic Otuchet.
Geoffrey Balimumiti, who won a silver medal at the 2nd Youth Olympic games at Nanjing did not make the team as his performance came after the names had already been submitted.
“There are still more opportunities and we are looking at seeing that we line him up for a longer programme opportunity.”
Cheptegie, the Police and Bugema university athlete is one of the rising stars that emerged less than a year ago. He finished second in the Mumbai 10km road run and is considered one of Uganda’s greatest road runners.
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