Cheptegei ‘spied’ on the Danish course ahead of victory, manager

Joshua Cheptegei and his manager Addy Ruiter. COURTESY PHOTO

Kampala- While the pre-match hype highlighted the hilly beast of a course with the monstrous 125-meter climb up the roof of the Moesgaard Museum stealing the limelight, it did not seem to affect the best of the best.

Organisers billed the 2019 championships on a devilish course at the Museum as a search for the world’s toughest runner.

Cheptegei is a worthy recipient of that unofficial title, too, especially as he defeated not only Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor and challenges that included a mud pit, sand section, water splash and, most of all, relentless hills, but also some ill health and a car accident in December.

Heading into the race, five men, Jacob Kiplimo, Kamworor, Aron Kifle of Eritrea, Selemon Barega of Ethiopia and Rhonex Kipruto of Kenya had a chance at winning, and those men took five of the top six spots.

With that said, Cheptegei was about as prepared for this race as anyone could have been as he was one of the few athletes in the world who had actually seen the course before this week.

Cheptegei was in Europe in November and smartly visited the course, so he knew what he was in for climbing the roof. His training camp in Kapchorwa is naturally very hilly, but after seeing the course, Cheptegei put an emphasis on training for the hills. He said that the hills he has been training on in practice were similar to the ones he faced in the race.

Cheptegei said that he’ll be posting pictures of his training from before World Cross Country on Instagram “because I really believed that it helped me a lot.”

Cheptegei’s coach Addy Ruiter was in Uganda for five weeks prior to World Cross Country and confirmed that the hills they trained on were significant. “The course [in training] was like this [in Aarhus],” Ruiter said. “You will see it when he puts it on Instagram.”
And Cheptegei ran those hills a lot — twice a week while Ruiter and two other specialists that were overseeing Cheptegei’s progress were over there.

2019 IAAF WXC RESULTS
SENIOR MEN (10KM)
1. Joshua Cheptegei (UGA) 31:40
2. Jacob Kiplimo (UGA) 31:44
3. Geoffrey Kamworor (KEN) 31:55
7. Thomas Ayeko (UGA) 32:25
10. Joel Ayeko (UGA) 32:32
12. Albert Chemutai (UGA) 32:46
27. Maxwell Rotich (UGA) 33:28
TEAM MEDAL
1. Uganda 20 points
2. Kenya 43
3. Ethiopia 46