Kiprotich heads Team Uganda to China
Aug 17, 2015
Stephen Kiprotich will lead Team Uganda to the IAAF World Championships which start Saturday.
By Norman Katende
Stephen Kiprotich will lead Team Uganda to the IAAF World Championships which start Saturday.
Team Uganda departs for the biennial event today afternoon after a flag off ceremony at Lugogo in the morning. The team which will be dressed by Errea, will be flown by Ethiopians Airlines, who are their flight partners for the event.
Kiprotich, the marathon defending champion after the gold medal he won in Moscow, leads a team of 11 athletes to the event. He is also the Olympic marathon champions.
The Team Uganda captain will compete in the marathon alongside other Ugandans Abraham Kiplimo and Jackson Kiprop, who were part of Team Uganda at the previous World Championships. Kiplimo won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last year while Kiprop was seventh in Moscow. They will be joined by Solomon Mutai in the marathon event.
“We are confident of our athletes’ abilities. Despite the financial difficulties, they have given all they can to see that they represent the country and what I would like to appeal to the country is to give them more support,” said the athletics federation president Domenic Otuchet, before he flew off to Beijing on Sunday.
He will attend the continental congress on Monday.
Uganda team: Stephen Kiprotich, Abraham Kiplimo, Solomon Mutai and Jackson Kiprop (marathon), Joshua Cheptegei, Timothy Toroitich and Moses Kibet (10000m), Philip Kipyeko (5000m), Benjamin Kiplagat (3000mSC), Ronald Musagala (1500m) and Juliet Chekwel, the only female competing in the 10000m.
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