Kiplimo closes 2023 with 15km world best

Ugandan long-distance runner Jacob Kiplimo is largely a satisfied man after closing his 2023 competition business on a high.

Kiplimo, who painfully missed the Budapest World Athletics Championships in Hungary due to injury, bounced back to finish the year with a dominant victory at the NN Zevenheuvelenloop race in Nijmegen, Netherlands on Sunday.

Kiplimo ran a well-calculated race over the undulating terrain across seven hills to win the 15km event in a joint-world best (WB) time of 41 minutes and five seconds in the beautiful Dutch city.

“It was very good but the weather was very good,” Kiplimo told this paper. Kiplimo equaled the WB mark set by another Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei who won the same event in 2018.

The victory came with a margin of 99 seconds ahead of compatriot Rogers Kibet. The triumph wraps a year where Kiplimo claimed the World Athletics Cross-country title from Cheptegei in Bathurst, Australia back in March.

He however missed competing for the 5000m and 10000m gold medals at the Budapest Worlds due to an acute injury near the hamstring area of the right leg.

When he recovered and went to set pace for Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge at the Berlin Marathon in Germany, he had too little recovery time to defend his 21km title at the new-look World Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia on October 1.

The 23-year-old on Sunday hit 10km in a time of 27:49, just like Cheptegei five years and whereas he fluctuated behind that WB pace, Kiplimo produced a final kilometre of 2:31 to rise.

Kibet, who won the event last year, posted a time of 42:44 ahead of Kenyan Amos Serem.

“After Bathurst, Kibet was having a bad track season. But, I think he learnt also a lot. Since Budapest, he is in the right track again and I expect, with the talent he has, much better performances next year,” said his coach Addy Ruiter.

The NN Zevenheuvelenloop event has been won Ugandan runners since 2015 bar 2020 and 2021 when it wasn’t held due to Covid-19.

2023 NN ZEVENHEUVELENLOOP

MEN’S 15KM RACE

1 Jacob Kiplimo (UGA)          41:05

2 Rogers Kibet (UGA)           42:44

3 Amos Serem (KEN)             43:07

4 Filmon Tesfu (NED)            44:00

5 Mike Foppen (NED)            44:01

6 Mustefa Kedir (NED)          44:04

NN ZEVENHEUVELENLOOP

CAST OF MALE CHAMPIONS

2023: Jacob Kiplimo (UGA)               41:05 WB*

2022: Rogers Kibet (UGA)                42:08

2021: Cancelled due to COVID-19    

2020: Cancelled due to COVID-19    

2019: Stephen Kissa (UGA)               41:49

2018: Joshua Cheptegei (UGA)          41:05   WB*

2017: Joshua Cheptegei (UGA)          41:16

2016: Joshua Cheptegei (UGA)          42:08

2015: Joshua Cheptegei (UGA)          42:39

WB denotes World Best