Cheptegei third in Spain cross country

Jan 26, 2015

Uganda''s junior athlete Joshua Cheptegei managed a third place finish in the 72th Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza, the sixth IAAF Cross Country Permit meetings, in the Spanish town Elgoibar on Sunday.

By Norman Katende

72th Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza

Men (10.8km):

1 Teklemariam Medhin (ERI) 33:02
2 Polat Kemboi Arikan (TUR) 33:04
3 Joshua Cheptegei (UGA) 33:05
4 Goitom Kifle (ERI) 33:06
5 Jairus Birech (KEN) 33:30
6 Paul Tanui (KEN) 33:45
7 Antonio Abadía (ESP) 33:49
8 Javier Guerra (ESP) 33:52
9 El Hassan Oubaddi (MOR) 34:10
10 Adam Hickey (GBR) 34:14
 
Uganda's junior athlete Joshua Cheptegei managed a third place finish in the 72th Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza, the sixth IAAF Cross Country Permit meetings, in the Spanish town Elgoibar on Sunday. This was Cheptegei's second race, having finished fifth in Sevilla last week.

The race was won by Eritrea's Teklemariam Medhin- his third win on Spanish soil this season.

Cheptegei- the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships 10,000m gold medallist  mastered the front running and did not let go the front pack  as he kept with the leading quartet that also had Turkey's European champion Polat Arikan, Kenya's Jairus Birech and the Eritrean duo of Medhin and Goitom Kifle.

Birech was setting the pace with Medhin running closely as the trio of Cheptegei, Arikan and Kifle followed with Paul Tanui fading out in the chasing field.

Cheptegei then moved to the front at the half way mark with Medhin not giving him room as Birech started to also fade away and looked like he was on course for his first victory.

However, 700m to the finish, Cheptegei fell in the muddiest area of the circuit and this kept him off balance. He tried to speed up to regain his balance and also stop the pack from leaving him far behind but the long-legged Medhin pulled away to triumph by three seconds with Arikan also beating him.

In America, Uganda's Vincent Okot managed to break the national indoor triple jump record. He jumped 15.65m breaking the record by 15cm.  The record was set December 9, 1972 by Sam Ageta Bua at Cosford, UK.​

RELATED STORIES:

Museveni rewards Cheptegei with a car

Cheptegei lined up for scholarship

 

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});