Chebet eyes gold in the Great Ethiopian Run
Junior athlete, Risper Chebet
KAMPALA. Junior athlete, Risper Chebet is confident of winning the women race during Africa's largest annual road race, the Great Ethiopian Run on Sunday.
Chebet won gold in September’s World Mountain Running Championships in Andorra. She thinks such races are important as she bids for a place to the 2020 Olympics.
“I will be number one on Sunday. I promise,” Chebet, who also won gold in the 2017 World Mountain Championships in Italy, said.
On Sunday, she will partner Esther Yeko Chekwemoi, who was seventh in the 4000m at the Youth Olympic Games held in Buenos Aires, Argentina last month.
Promising youngster Joel Kiplagat, a Senior Two student of Teso College Aloet and Leonard Chemonges will represent Uganda in the men’s race.
The team, sponsored by sports tourism promoters Tuku Afrika, was flagged off on Wednesday in Kampala.
The 10km run was inaugurated in 2001 by Ethiopian running legend Haile Gebreselassie as part of his efforts to turn running from an elite sport into a hobby for the masses.
Olympic gold medallist Stephen Kiprotich was invited to flag off the event where organisers expect 500 international participants from 26 countries out of a total number of 47,500 runners.
