Joshua Cheptegei secures gold medal on Sunday at the World Athletics Championships held at the Hawyard Field in Eugene – Oregon, United States of America .
Last year in Tokyo Cheptegei kept calm and ready until the bell, only to be outkicked by Selemon Barega. On Sunday he started raising the wager with over a kilometre to go, throwing in laps of 64 and 63 seconds to stretch a group of eight as they hit the bell.
He then went on to press and though there was a mad scramble behind him that had the healthy Hayward Field crowd roaring in cherishing, he was powerful enough to hold the field off and come home in 27:27.43 minutes.
Kenya’s Stanley Mburu, who took a heavy fall on the first lap, regained strength well to finish second in 27:27.90. Jacob Kiplimo, 21, who was third in Tokyo, snatched another bronze for Uganda in 27:27.97.
“I knew that if I get into the last fight, I can control it and I could speed it up,” said Cheptegei, still only 25 but who made his world championship debut back in 2015.
“I did not aim to run really fast because of the heat, the sun was very strong, but I was able to get stronger and keep it faster and faster.”
Cheptegei, who also took a silver in the event in 2017 and who won Olympic gold over 5,000m last year, will now attempt the evasive double when going again over 5,000 later in the week in Eugene.
