Half-marathon record is within Kiplimo's reach

Uganda's fast-growing stature as an athletics giant was again underlined at the weekend.

Teenager Jacob Kiplimo struck gold as he also led his country to team bronze in Uganda's best World Half Marathon performance ever.

That this was on top of a fourth-place women's finish was grand for a country whose best outing had previously been a men's team bronze.

Uganda's strength in depth was underlined by Kiplimo 58.49 championship record in the port city of Gdynia.

Uganda Athletics Federation general secretary Beatrice Ayikoru believes Kiplimo could have easily broken Geoffrey Kamworor's 58:01 world record.

"He wasted a lot of crucial time looking over his shoulder. He also kept waiting for Cheptegei instead of attacking the record."

Overall, Ayikoru noted that Kiplimo has over the past two years matured, and on Saturday ran a very tactical race.

The record is going forward now just a matter of time. With Joshua Cheptegei proving that no record is impossible to beat after accumulating three records in a season, team-mates like Kiplimo can also emulate him.

Kiplimo's failure to soar to world record heights is underlined by his excitement after the race.

"It is hard to explain because I am full of emotion. Unbelievable," Kiplimo told olympichannel.com.

"I feel very happy. I feel great, it was my first time at the World Half Marathon Championships and I won!" said Kiplimo who won his first half-marathon last year in Kampala.

Chepetegei just missed out on the medals, finishing fourth with a time of 59:21 just 10 days after breaking the 10,000m world record in Valencia.

The reigning world cross-country and 10,000m champion said, "My body was really going very well but I discovered I still had some fatigue in the legs. I couldn't give more than that.

"I have been training more for 5000m and 10,000m so I was not well prepared for it, but I'm very happy - running a sub-60 is really special for me," Cheptegei said.