Stephen Kissa: Step-up Uganda’s kingmaker
What you need to know:
- Unknown by many, Kissa is Cheptegei’s key to the gold.
Contrary to races elsewhere which require speed, top athletes resort to tactics to be able to claim silverware in long-distance running events at championships like the Olympics.
The impact of men’s 10000m final could add concrete or fracture race favourite Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei’s career. He is ready to give the 25-lap event everything to take the gold home, which would be Uganda’s only third Olympic title in history.
Cheptegei will be in company of Jacob Kiplimo and Stephen Kissa who will be very key to his projected success at the National Stadium.
Unknown by many, Kissa is Cheptegei’s key to the gold. “First steps in Japan,” read the caption on Cheptegei’s first image with Kissa which he posted to his 152,000 followers on Instagram this week.
Often quiet and humble, Kissa is a solid long-distance runner and has displayed prospects of being even better on the road, particularly in the half-marathon distance.
Since last year, he’s been Cheptegei’s go-to man. They share notes and programs with Cheptegei under the guise of coaches Addy Ruiter and Denis Okudach at the Global Sports Communication (GSC) camp in Kapchorwa.
On September 1, 2019, Cheptegei got his tactics right to win the 10000m final at the Doha World Championships thanks to Abdallah Mande who broke down the field with desired pace for the first half of the race.
Mande qualified for the Olympics but by last year, he had parted ways with GSC to join Italian managers.
Tactics concealed
When Kissa beat the Tokyo Olympics qualification mark with 27:26.46 in eighth place at the Ethiopian Trials in Hengelo, Netherlands on June 8, Cheptegei and Ruiter may have been the happiest.
Ruiter has respectably remained tight-lipped on the race tactics for tonight but Kissa could take on a role Mande had two years ago. “You will see that on Friday,” said the Dutch coach.
Last August, Kissa was a pace-setter and helped Cheptegei go through the first kilometre in 2:31.87 before successfully breaking Kenenisa Bekele’s 5000m world record (WR) to 12:35.36 at the Monaco Diamond League in France.
Kissa was at it again two months later as he pushed Cheptegei to keep with the wave light enroute to breaking Bekele’s 10000m WR to 26:11.00 during the NN Running World Record Day in Valencia, Spain last October.
Tonight, Cheptegei and Kiplimo, who are key contenders, have the Olympic record of 27:01.17 set by Bekele at the Beijing 2008 Games, in sight.
“My prayer is that the race is run below 26:40 minutes such that we have less competition in the last five laps. So the trick is to exhaust the opponents so that they don’t have the last strong kick,” Kiplimo confidently said in a chat. And the final kick is important. In Doha, Cheptegei ran the last 400m inside 55 seconds to wade off Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha.
“That depends how hard the race will be and how tough the weather conditions will be,” added Ruiter.
Even though they don’t train together, there has been talk of Cheptegei and Kiplimo trying to grind out 54 seconds between the bell and the tape.
MEN’S 10,000M FINAL
World Champion: Joshua Cheptegei (UGA)
Olympic Champion: Mo Farah (GBR)
World Record: 26:11.00 (Joshua Cheptegei)
Olympic Record:
27:01.17 (Kenenisa Bekele, ETH)
Tokyo Olympic Final: July 30 (Today)
Uganda’s Tokyo reps:
Joshua Cheptegei, Jacob Kiplimo, Stephen Kissa
2016 Olympic Medallists:
Mo Farah (GBR), Paul Tanui (KEN), Tamirat Tola (ETH)
