Cheptegei tipped to win gold in Guiyang

By Norman Katende

Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei  is one of the favourites to win a gold medal in the IAAF  World  Cross Country championships  that is due Saturday  in Guiyang, China.

The 18-year-old World  and Africa junior 10000m gold medalist and 19-year-old Ethiopian Yihunilign Adane, who performed well in the last edition and was also won a team gold medal in Bydgoszcz, Poland, are the top two athletes to watch out for in the event.

“I know that the pressure will be on me but at least I now  have some experience in running against the top runners and I will use that to ensure that I perform better,” Cheptegei said.

The final entry figures confirm that this year’s championships will be bigger than the past three editions with an expected 447 athletes from 51 countries set to compete in Guiyang, surpassing the numbers from 2013 (400 athletes from 41 countries), 2011 (423 athletes from 51 countries) and 2010 (437 athletes from 51 countries).

Cheptegei is the only Ugandan on the list  that is dominated by Kenyans and Eritreans.

He will be looking at becoming the first Ugandan to  win an individual gold medal at the world cross country events with the best individual medal coming from Moses Kipsiro (Amman, 2009)  who won silver in the senior category.

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