Uganda’s Marathon King Cheptegei Joins World’s Greats with 10,000m Hat-trick

Ahead of his move up to the marathon in Valencia in December, Joshua Cheptegei bade a possible farewell to championship track racing by completing a hat-trick of world 10,000m wins.

Striking with 600m to go and holding off Ethiopia’s Olympic champion Selemon Barega, who was ultimately pipped for silver by Kenyan Daniel Ebenyo, Cheptegei crossed the line a clear winner in 27:51.42.

In doing so, the 26-year-old Ugandan became the fourth man to bag three world 10,000m crowns, following Ethiopians Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele, who both won a fourth, and Briton Mo Farah.

“This might be my last championships on the track,” said Cheptegei.

“That’s why this gold medal means even more.”

No sooner had day two closed at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 than the Hungarian capital launched into national party mode, a fireworks show on the Danube marking St Stephen’s Day, celebrating State Founding Day and the country’s first king, patron and founder.

The show inside the National Athletics Centre had been some spectacle to behold.

There were thrills, happily no spills, but several surprises as the US sprinter Noah Lyles, the Ugandan distance running king Joshua Cheptegei, the British all-rounder Katarina Johnson-Thompson, the Serbian long jumper Ivana Vuleta and the unheralded Canadian hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg all hit the gold medal standard – as Spain’s Maria Perez had done on the roads in the morning in the women’s 20km race walk.