World Cross Country: Kipyeko ready to take on the big guns
Mar 27, 2015
World Junior mountain running and national cross country champion Philip Kipyeko has said that team Uganda are not faint hearted on hearing the top names being mentioned as favourites and that they are ready to produce a surprise at Saturday’s IAAF World Cross Country championships.
By Norman Katende
Saturday IAAF World Cross Country Championships
7am junior women 6km
7.30am junior men 8km
8.15am Senior Women 8km
9.30am Senior Men 12km
Prize money
Individual winners
1. Sh90m, 2. Sh45m, 3. Sh30m, 4. Sh21m, 5 sh15m, 6. Sh9m
Team Prizes
1. sh60m, 2. sh48m, 3 sh36m, 4. Sh30m, 5. Sh24m, 6. Sh12m
World Junior mountain running and national cross country champion Philip Kipyeko has said that team Uganda are not faint hearted on hearing the top names being mentioned as favourites and that they are ready to produce a surprise at Saturday’s IAAF World Cross Country championships.
Kipyeko beat former World cross country senior men bronze and silver medallist Moses Kipsiro to the national title last month in Jinja. Kipsiro has since pulled out of the World Cross Country championships.
“We have come to run. They have the same blood like us but we are not going to say much. In sports we speak with performance and that is what we are going to use,” said the ever smiling Kipyeko in Guiyang.
Kipyeko will be teaming up with Timothy Toroitich, who won four of the six pre-season cross country events in Europe, Geoffrey Kusuro and former World junior bronze medallist Moses Kibet, as they fight to try to keep Team Uganda in top position.
“We are the next hosts so we have to perform better so that the world sees us,” said Kipyeko.
The senior men's team is looking at making a surprise finish and end the Kenya and Ethiopia dominancy in one of the many races of the day.
TEAM PROFILES
Junior women's race
March 28,
Uganda time: 7am
Team: Stella Chesang, Doreen Chemutai, Janat Chemusto and Mercyline Chelangat
Past Uganda performance:
Individual Medal: None
Team Medal: Bronze (Bydgoszcz, Poland, 2010)
With Nancy Cheptegei, Uganda's top performer in the last edition of the World junior cross country championships upgrading to the senior category, Stella Chesang remains the most experienced runner in international cross country running who is making Team Uganda.
The athlete, the only one remaining on the national team has improved in her experience, having won the world mountain running junior category and also won a bronze medal in the Africa Junior championships in Addis Ababa last week. Chesang and Rachel Chebet Zena are the only two juniors still remaining I the category after the 2013 Word event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
She will be boosted by another experienced Mercyline Chelangat, who had been racing in the senior category in Europe.
Chelangat finished fourth in the Cinque Mulin cross country senior women race and believes that she can even do better when she faces the junior runners.
Doreen Chemutai and Janat Chemusto will also be making their first appearances in the junior women event of the biennial event with Uganda seeking for an opportunity to win an individual medal in the event.
All the athletes come from Police Athletics Club.
The junior men's team:
Past Uganda Performance:
Individual Medals: Silver (Boniface Kiprop), Bronze (Moses Kibet , Thomas Ayeko and Boniface Kiprop)
Team Medals :Five Bronze
The junior man have been Uganda's top performing both at the team and individual level and it's no surprise that the odds are high for them to break the gold medal deficit on Uganda's shelf.
Already the organisers have named the World and Africa 10000m junior runner Joshua Cheptegei as top favourites to win the event after his recent performance and running style.
The Police and Bugema University runner however insists that he will not budge under pressure but will run his race and try to put up a good performance.
He very well knows that at one time, Boniface Kiprop was among the favourites but failed to win a gold medal during those days and his promise has been to run "a good race and not allow to be left behind by the lead pack and as the race matures, so he will."
Joshua Cheptegei will be led by a team of other upcoming junior runners, who are not letting their first trip be a disadvantage to them.
Fred Musobo , Mande Bushendich, Abel Chebet and Robert Chemonges are all seeing that they run together, help each other in seeing that the country is back on the medal podium in the cross country event, despite not having a cash prize to win as per IAAF rules.
Senior Women
Team: Juliet Chekwel, Adero Nyakisi, Nancy Cheptegei, Emily Chebet and Patricia Chekwemboi
Past Medals
Individuals: None
Team: None
The history of the senior women team in the World Cross Country championships is limited to individual brilliances with Juliet Chekwel always coming up top in the past two events in Punta Umbria (2011) and Bydgoszcz (2013).
Aware that despite never competing in any 10000m but got an opportunity to compete in the same event at the Moscow World Championships in 2013, Chekwel will be out to inspire her team mates in the battle of finishing among the top 15 and benefit from the offer.
With the support of experienced Adero Nyakisi, who has reacted well after her maternity leave and Nancy Cheptegei, who has grown through the rank and improved in her running style, the Senior women will have more an inspiration in not only trying to share out the team and individual prize money on offer but also an opportunity to get onto the government grant system.
Uganda will have a great foundation to challenge not only the top countries in Ethiopia, Kenya and Eritrea but also hosts China, who have always produced surprises in the women event, with the help of coach Renato Canova- an icon of distance running in the world and a former coach to former World 3000m steeplechase champions Ezekiel Kemboi (Kenya) and Dorcus Inzikuru (Uganda)
Senior men:
Team:Philip Kipyeko, Geoffrey Kusuro, Moses Kibet, Mande Abdallah and Timothy Toroitich
Team medal : Bronze medal
Individual Medal: Bronze Moses Kipsiro, Silver, Moses Kipsiro
Moses Kipsiro is supposed to the star of this team, but for personal reasons has pulled out, which leaves the task to two younsters who get a chance to prove themselves .
The two Timothy Toroitich and Philip Kipyeko have fought to leave mark in distance running but even after trying to beating Kipsiro, they have always been subdues by his shadow .
Toroitich beat Kipsiro when the met in the San Sabastian Cross Country in Spain, while Philip Kipyeko also beat him at the national vent in Jinja.
But despite the performance, the win was treated as lukewarm in the media and the public, as was the win for Philip Kipyeko at the National cross country championships, which was over taken by the famous fight.
However, these two have tried hard and though they were let down that Kipsiro opted out of the race on the last minute, they believe that the world will give them an opportunity to shine as they take on the top performers at the event.
They will be boosted by Geoffrey Kusuro, who is coming off setting a national half marathon record last month and Moses Kibet, a former world junior bronze medallist.
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