Cheptegei targets 10,000m record in Valencia on Wednesday

Wednesday

NN Valencia meet (10,000m)

October 17

World Half Marathon

Joshua Cheptegei's task of breaking the 10,000-meter world record has been eased with Uganda's opening of international travel.

President Yoweri Museveni last week opened Entebbe international airport to the general public.

Cheptegei revealed in Mbale last Thursday how the closed borders had turned out to be a bigger obstacle than actual track record-breaking.

"My biggest obstacle was how I was going to get out of the country not how I was going to break the world record. That is no longer the case," Cheptegei stated at an MTN ceremony to reward him for breaking the 5000m world record at Mbale Resort Hotel.

On his way to breaking that record in August, Cheptegei was saved by President Museveni.

He offered a special Uganda Airlines flight to Nairobi for the Monaco Diamond League-bound team of Stephen Kissa, Halimah Nakaayi, Winnie Nanyondo, and Cheptegei.

With the easing of international travel, Cheptegei will now depart on today  (Sunday) on a KLM flight for the Wednesday race in the Spanish city Valencia.

He will then ten days later again travel with the same Dutch airliner for the World Half Marathon championship.

Flights in and out of Entebbe officially began on Friday.

Cheptegei hopes to create more magical moments in his rising career as he plans an assault on the world 10,000m record at the NN Valencia World Record Day in Turia Stadium.

The one-off event aims to capitalise on the Ugandan's stunning recent form, which last month saw him lower Kenenisa Bekele's world 5000m record in Monaco.

In Valencia, Joshua will be targeting the stunning mark of 26:17.53 set by Kenenisa in Brussels 15 years ago - the longest standing men's 10,000m world record in history.

Cheptegei and Akii-Bua are the only Ugandans to have set world records.