Juniors find going tough as Uganda savour first ever x-country gold

Kenya once again failed to reclaim the men’s and women’s junior individual and overall titles at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

And after years of struggling, Uganda finally won her first gold medal at the global showpiece, having won 19 medals without gold medal in sight.

It was a spectacular sight to behold for 19-year-old Jacob Kiplimo who, before thousands of fans inside Kololo Independence Grounds that included President Yoweri Museveni, shrugged the Kenyan challenge.

Kiplimo said he was certain of victory. “I had trained well. I just needed to study the Kenyans well in the first two loops and then decide on which point to react. And I did it perfectly when I realised they had ran out of energy.

“I want to be like Stephen Kiprotich (2012 London Olympics marathon winner and 2013 world championships winner) and Moses Kipsiro (Commonwealth Games 10,000m champion) in future,” Kiplimo, the 2016 world U-20 10,000m bronze medalist in Bydgoszcz in Poland and Uganda’s youngest athlete at the Rio Olympics, said he will get back to training in preparation for London Worlds.

Richard Kimunyan, the bronze medallist, said he was grateful for third spot.

“I am happy for bronze. The pace was too high,” he said.

Kiplimo won in 22:40 ahead of Ethiopia’s Amdework Walelegn (22:43), Richard Kimuyan (22:52), Ethiopians Betesfa Getahun (22:58), Selemon Barega (23:03) and Tefera Mosisa (23:04).

Amos Kirui (23:04) and Edwin Kiplang’at returned seventh and eighth respectively.

Hicham Akankam (24:35) of Morocco was the first non-East African in 20th place while Japanese Kazuya Nishiyama (25:15) emerged as the first non-African in 27th place.

Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey and Hawi Feysa snatched gold and silver medals as Celliphine Chepteek Chespol, the world youth 2,000m steeplechase and world under-20 3,000m steeplechase champion, settled for bronze. Chepteek, a debutant at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, said she took a fall that slowed her down.

“I tried catching up with the Ethiopians but they were too strong,“ said Chepteek.

The poor showing in the junior races, especially in the past three editions of the IAAF world cross country championships, with some athletics analysts claiming the junior athletes over train in residential camps.

But Francis Kamau, the national cross country assistant coach, blamed it on the high pace.

“Kimunyan for example did the pace setting for long. Had it been slow, he could have won,” said Kamau.