Joshua Cheptegei celebrates with the Ugandan team in Aarhus (© Dan Vernon)
1973-1982 | 1983-1992 | 1993-2002 | 2003-2011 | 2012-2023
It was at the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in the centre of Kampala six years ago that the balance of World Cross Country power began to shift.
Kenya and Ethiopia continued their domination of the senior men’s long race at the 2017 edition of the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in the Ugandan capital, between them taking a sweep of the individual medals and claiming the coveted team prize for the 34th time in succession.
There were, however, significant signs of a new force emerging as rivals to the East African ‘Old Firm’.
While Ethiopia and Kenya slugged out a close duel for the team title, the former prevailing by 21 points to 23, neighbours Uganda took third spot on home soil with 72 points. It was their third team bronze in the senior men’s long course race, having also finished third in Mombasa in 2007 and in Punta Umbria in 2011.
For much of the 9.9km race, a historic home gold appeared to be beckoning for the host nation and for the poster boy of the championships.
Joshua Cheptegei in the lead pack at the 2017 World Cross (© Jiro Mochizuki)
On the third of the five laps, Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda’s 2014 world U20 10,000m champion, moved to the front and put clear daylight between himself and his rivals. Entering the final circuit, the 20-year-old held a lead of 12 seconds.
Moses Kipsiro, the 2007 world 5000m bronze medallist, had finished a close second behind Ethiopia’s Gebre Gebremariam in Amman in 2009 and placed third in Bydgoszcz a year later, but Uganda had yet to strike individual or team gold in the senior men’s race.
But just as the packed patriotic crowd was getting ready to hail a momentous home victory, the wheels started to come off the Cheptegei chariot. Big time.
The heat, the humidity and the mistimed effort exacted a heavy toll. With one kilometre remaining, his lead was down to seven seconds. Sniffing an opportunity to hold on to the title, Geoffrey Kamworor swept past the flagging Ugandan and onwards to victory.
His Kenyan teammate Leonard Barsoton came through for silver and Ethiopia’s Abadi Hadis for bronze. Cheptegei faded to 30th, his sole consolation a bronze team medal.
As it happened, there had been scenes of Ugandan jubilation after the preceding race, the U20 men’s 7.9km.
Jacob Kiplimo, a bronze medallist on the track over 10,000m at the previous year’s World Under 20 Championships, powered clear on the last of the four laps to earn the host country their first ever gold medal at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships.
Jacob Kiplimo leads the U20 men's race at the 2017 World Cross in Kampala (© Jiro Mochizuki)
“Yes! Yes! Yes!!” exclaimed the delighted Kiplimo, who was congratulated by Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. “I always thought I could win. When I broke away going into the last lap, I knew I was going to do it.”
Uganda was pipped to bronze in the team section by Eritrea, but eight previous third-placed finishes in the U20 men’s race between 2000 and 2011 – along with team bronze medals in the senior women’s race in 2015 and U20 women’s contest in 2010 and 2017 – pointed towards the senior breakthrough that was to fully materialise at the next edition of the championships.
In Aarhus in Denmark in 2019, the Kenyan-Ethiopian hegemony was rent asunder. For the first time since the 1980 championships at Longchamps Racecourse in Paris, when England won, the senior men’s team prize went to a country other than the two established East African cross-country giants.
Cheptegei led the changing of the guard on a dashingly different Danish course, which featured a steep climb up to and down from a grass section on top of the Moesgaard Museum.
Two years on from his last-lap heartache on home ground, which he followed with a silver medal run in the 10,000m at the 2017 World Championships in London, the 22-year-old savoured the sweet taste of atonement in the aftermath of a momentous race for his country.
Prominent from the challenging uphill start, Cheptegei was one of four contenders who pulled clear of the field after Kiplimo pushed the pace on the second steep climb up on to the museum roof. Entering the fourth lap, Eritrea’s Aron Kifle dropped back, leaving Cheptegei and Kiplimo battling it out with defending champion Kamworor.
Joshua Cheptegei leads at the 2019 World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus (© Dan Vernon)
Kiplimo forged ahead on the penultimate museum climb and, at just five months past his 18th birthday, looked set to become the youngest ever winner of the senior race as he approached the final circuit. However, Kamworor chased hard on the uphill start of the final lap and closed the gap on the ensuing descent. Unfortunately for the Kenyan, he had drawn Cheptegei with him.
The Ugandan pair proceeded to pull away, and on the final ascent to the museum rooftop Cheptegei launched the decisive attack, opening a gap of five metres that he doubled on the descent. He crossed the line with a four-second advantage, Kiplimo claiming the silver and Kamworor the bronze – ahead of the fourth-placed Kifle and Ethiopia’s world indoor 3000m silver medallist Selemon Barega in fifth.
“This win is so special for me, having lost in 2017,” Cheptegei reflected. “On the final lap I knew a Ugandan would win. The question was which one it would be. I felt strong but I knew there was still work to be done.”
Kiplimo had gone into the race on a nine-month, nine-race winning streak. Cheptegei had undergone a troubled build-up, having suffered a lingering knee injury while walking into a door at home and injured his back in a car accident three months previously.
“My lower back had a lot of pain,” Cheptegei said. “My confidence was knocked. It had a lot of effects. I was not in my best shape.”
Still, he was feeling on top of the world after leading his country to their momentous team triumph. With Thomas Ayeko seventh and Joseph Ayeko 10th, Uganda brought to an end the run of 34 victories by the neighbouring big boys of the global distance running game: 24 Kenyan triumphs, 10 Ethiopian.
They finished 20 points clear of Kenya, with Ethiopia a further three points behind in third.
Having gained redemption for his Kampala meltdown, Cheptegei set his sights on global track glory. “My ambition is to dominate the track for the next five to six years,” he declared.
In the intervening four years, the world cross country champion has collected two world 10,000m titles, an Olympic 5000m gold medal and an Olympic 10,000m silver. He has also become the fastest 5000m and 10,000m runner of all time, eclipsing Kenenisa Bekele’s world records with times of 12:35.36 in Monaco and 26:11.00 in Valencia in the pandemic days of 2020.
In doing so, Cheptegei has picked up the trailblazing baton carried by the original golden boy of Ugandan track and field. At the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, John Akii-Bua became the country’s first Olympic champion and world record-holder, shattering David Hemery’s 400m hurdles mark with a stunning 47.82, the first sub-48-second clocking in history.
Stephen Kiprotich won Olympic marathon gold in London in 2012 and Peruth Chemutai claimed the Olympic 3000m steeplechase crown a week before Cheptegei’s 5000m triumph in Tokyo in 2021, so Uganda is gathering serious momentum as a global athletics force.
At the 2017 World Cross Country Championships, Uganda placed third in the U20 women’s team contest. In Aarhus in 2019, in addition to Cheptegei and Kiplimo finishing one and two and leading the senior men’s team to victory, Oscar Chelimo won individual bronze in the U20 men’s race and led the team to the silver medal.
Peruth Chemutai and Rachael Chebet in action in Aarhus (© Jiro Mochizuki)
Uganda’s senior women, meanwhile, got on the team podium in third place with 36 points – the best score ever for a bronze medal at the World Cross. Chemutai and Rachael Chebet both placed in the top five, while two other compatriots made it into the top 14.
Like Cheptegei, Kiplimo has also made a big mark since Aarhus. He has gained Olympic and world bronze medals on the track and a world half marathon title on the road. He has also set a half marathon world record, clocking 57:31 in Lisbon in November 2021.
Aged just 15 when he represented his country at the Rio Olympics in 2016, running in the 5000m heats, Kiplimo is still only 22. Cheptegei is hardly an old stager himself, at 26.
Uganda’s dynamic duo have years ahead of them yet in what is proving to be a golden era for the New Firm of East Africa.
Fifth decade of World Cross action
2013 Bygdoszcz, Poland
At 19 years 266 days, Kenya’s Japhet Korir eclipsed Kenenisa Bekele as the youngest ever winner of a senior men’s title. The US finished second to Ethiopia in the men’s team section, with Kenya in third – the first time Kenya had been beaten by a nation other than their neighbours since 1982. Kenya’s Emily Chebet repeated her 2010 senior women’s success on the same course.
2015 Guiyang, China
Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor became the third man to graduate from U20 to senior men’s champion, following Bekele and Gebre Gebremariam. Kamworor’s teammate Agnes Tiprop, 19, became the youngest senior women’s champion since Zola Budd in 1985. At 15, Letesenbet Gidey became the youngest ever U20 women’s winner.
2017 Kampala, Uganda
Irene Cheptai led an unprecedented Kenyan sweep of the first six places in the senior women’s race. Even with Genzebe Dibaba on the anchor leg, Ethiopia had to settle for silver behind Kenya in the inaugural mixed relay. Gidey successfully defended the U20 women’s title.
2019 Aarhus, Denmark
Kenya’s world 5000m champion Hellen Obiri made history as the first woman to win senior world titles on the track indoors and out and at cross country. Fantu Worku anchored Ethiopia to mixed relay gold, while Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet captured the U20 women’s title in a photo finish.
2023 Bathurst, Australia
For the first time in World Cross Country history, the event heads to Australia. More than 400 athletes from around the world will descend on Mount Panorama in Bathurst for the elite races in what promises to be another enthralling edition of the global event.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage
