Kiprotich hails Musobo, Musagala disappointed

Stephen Kiprotich was impressed by Fred Musobo as the latter finished as Uganda’s best-placed runner after the men’s 42km marathon at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Corniche in the wee hours of yesterday.

“I am happy with Musobo,” said Kiprotich. Musobo posted 2:13:42 on the looped course to finish 13th as Lelisa Desisa won Ethiopia’s first title over the distance in 18 years.

“You see, I have done this thing for a long time,” Kiprotich, 30, noted, “So I have to let these younger ones take up the new stage.

“When I tell them to train in Kapchorwa, they do not want. They think I can still do it. It is only Musobo who listens to me and he still has more to do,” the 2012 Olympic and 2013 World champion Kiprotich went on.
This was Kiprotich’s 19th career marathon and he finished in 18th place with 2:15:04.

“My body just could not move the entire race,” he remarked. The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are in sight. “We will see,” he added.

For Musobo, who won the 2015 World Mountain Running Championships, this was his debut at the Worlds but he faded from seventh place midway to finish six places further behind.

“Had it not been a looped course, may be,” said Musobo, “Here, we went around the course in six laps of 7km but if it were running from one point to another, it would have been different for me,” the 23-year-old added.

Solomon Mutai, Uganda’s best marathoner in championships since 2015, suffered a stitch after the 25km mark in Corniche and failed to complete a 42km race for the first time in his career.

Similarly, middle-distance runner Ronald Musagala was short of words after failing to reach a race final for the fourth time at the Worlds.
He got it wrong at the bell in the men’s 1500m semi-final Heat 2.

“Championship races are very tough,” a disappointed Musagala said. “Two guys came in front of me and I got boxed in. And once that happens, it is very difficult to recover,” added the man who had arrived in Doha with the third fastest time in the world of 3:30.58 this year.

BEST UGANDA MARATHON FINISHES

2011 Daegu Worlds: Stephen Kiprotich, 9th
2012 London Olympics: Stephen Kiprotich, 1st
2013 Moscow Worlds: Stephen Kiprotich, 1st
2014 Commonwealth Games: Abraham Kiplimo, 3rd
2015 Beijing Worlds: Solomon Mutai, 3rd
2016 Rio Olympics: Solomon Mutai, 8th
2017 London Worlds: Solomon Mutai, 11th
2018 Commonwealth Games: Solomon Mutai, 2nd
2019 Doha Worlds: Fred Musobo, 13th