All Ugandan focus will be on Oscar Chelimo in the Men’s 5000m semifinal and final at the ongoing Olympic Games in Paris, France.
This follows the withdrawal of his compatriots Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo. The latter is his brother.
The duo of Cheptegei and Kiplimo pulled out due to injuries, according to reports coming in from the Ugandan camp in France.
NBS Sport reliably understands these two long-distance running partners have not trained since their involvement in 10,000m on Friday, where Cheptegei won gold and Kiplimo finished eighth.
Cheptegei has a problem with his shoulder, and his decision not to participate had been heard of in the corridors already, while there has been a deliberate effort to have Kiplimo in the race but in vain.
Chelimo has been training alone and will take on the sole initiative on the running track at Stade de France on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old has two silver and three bronze medals to his name in his career so far.
He won the 3000m silver in the African Youth Games in 2018 in Algiers and the U20 team World Cross Country Championships in 2019 in Aarhus.
His bronze medals came in the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games in 3000m, the 2019 World Cross Country Championships U20 race in Aarhus, and in the 5000m at the 2022 Eugene World Championships.
Cheptegei’s withdrawal means that we shall have a new winner of the men’s 5000m, given that he came into this event as the gold medalist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
He managed to add the elusive gold medal to his gallery on Friday and that is the last time we saw him in the track and field and Olympic Games as a whole.
The 27-year-old will now embark on a new journey on the road for the marathons.
