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| Cheptegei wins the world juniors. He will be Uganda's man to watch |
The two nations’ record in the team event is even more intimidating – won all from 1986 to 2015. The story is increasingly similar in the women and junior events, with the Kenyans and Ethiopians dominating the past decade.
The story could however change on Sunday when Uganda hosts the 42nd IAAF World Cross Country Championships Kampala 2017.
Uganda has come close to taking the individual men’s gold once before through Moses Kipsiro in 2009 and will not get a better chance to take charge than this year at their own Kololo Independence Grounds on March 26.
“We have a selected a very strong team. We we want to challenge the dominant sides…we will give them a run for their money,” promised Uganda athletics chief Domenic Otucet.
There are many reasons why the Ugandans are confident. Three of them are Joshua Cheptegei, Stephen Kiprotich and Timothy Toroitich.
Kiprotich
Stephen Kiprotich has in the last five years shown the Kenyans and Ethiopians can be beaten at their own game. This he did in the marathon at the 2012 Olympic and 2013 world champions, all preceded by a sixth place showing at the 2011 World Cross championships in Spain.
At Uganda’s trials for this year’s event, he showed he can still match the change of pace from the marathon to the cross country, by finishing 5th.
Toroitich
All the stars, fresh from IAAF Cross Country Permit series November 2016 to February 2017, will travel to Kampala with a familiar name to look out for – Timothy Toroitich.
Before breaking off the circuit in November to prepare for Kampala 2017, Toroitich had swept to victory in the second leg race of the 2016-17 IAAF Cross Country Permit series.
Two weeks earlier, Toroitich finished second in the opening race of the winter’s IAAF Cross Country Permit series behind Bahrain’s Aweke Ayalew.
Toroitich finished fifth in the world cross country championships in 2013, and was eighth in the 10,000m at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015.
Joshua Cheptegei
Joshua Cheptegei destroyed a strong field to win the senior men’s gold at the National Cross Country Championships in Kampala in January to show he will be the man to watch on Sunday.
Defending champion Phillip Kipyeko set the early pace at the Kampala trials, but when Cheptegei took charge in the second of five laps at Kololo, the battle for everyone else remained for second place.
Cheptegei is the 2014 world U20 10,000m champion and 2015 African junior cross-country gold medalist.
The 20-year-old doubled at last year’s Olympic Games, finishing an impressive sixth in the 10,000m and eighth in the 5000m on his debut, and will clearly be favourite to dethrone the Kenyans and Ethiopians.
He has what it takes to make a glorious debut in the seniors, having finished 11th at his first cross country event, the junior men's event in 2015.
The Prize Money at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships will be as follows:
Senior Races:
Individual
1st $30,000
2nd $15,000
3rd $10,000
4th $7,000
5th $5,000
6th $3,000
Team
1st $20,000
2nd $16,000
3rd $12,000
4th $10,000
5th $8,000
6th $4,000
Relay:
1st $12,000
2nd $ 8,000
3rd $6,000
4th $4,000
.@iaaforg Teachinal Teams with final installations at Kololo earlier today. #Seiko #iaafkampala2017 pic.twitter.com/VaA358EDJt— Josh Wama (@JoshWama) March 23, 2017
Here is the IAAF World Cross Country championships 2017 final entry lists. The Ugandan capital Kampala this week hosts 557 runners from 59 countries and one refugee team.
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