Jacob Kiplimo heralds a new dynamic, but …

Jacob Kiplimo scored a convincing win at 24th staging of the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships on Saturday. The teenager took the tape in a championship record (58:54) at the Polish port city of Gdynia. 
The performance firmly puts him front and centre of global distance running. It also affirms the fact that the distance is Uganda’s sweet spot in athletics.
If there are any doubts as to if Kiplimo can bear setbacks with such broad shoulders and sophistication as Cheptegei did after his Kololo implosion, the past returns a reassuring verdict. 
Kiplimo’s recent reaction to the crushing disappointment of languishing on the fringes with a nagging injury marked him out as a star. He took the setback in his stride with such impressive stoicism that one would think him a veteran.
Kiplimo seems to have such an old head on young shoulders (he’s just 19!); yet the danger will be in christening him a finished article. He will need a good support system to help him make the right decisions. 
The teen sensation will, for one, have to manage his body better by choosing what events to take part in wisely. The 19-year-old has already confirmed that he will double up at the Olympics next year. Which is just as well. In Gdynia, he also somewhat surprisingly revealed that his favourite running surface is, wait for it, the road.
With a senior world title in his cabinet, the youngster with a welcome smile – who counts Cheptegei and Moses Kipsiro as his role models – should brace himself for a deluge of invitations. 
It’s also perfectly conceivable that the Wanda Diamond League will dangle a number of 3,000 metres races for Kiplimo who clocked a world-leading 7min 26.64sec over that distance in Rome last month.
The cumulative result for this wide-eyed talent who is entirely not intimidated by any opponent both on the road and track could be fatigue and burnout. Such an outcome will be as unfortunate and eerily reminiscent of what became of Boniface Kiprop.