Joshua Cheptegei
Joshua Cheptegei doesn’t do many things slowly.
That’s the way it is when you’re the men’s world record-holder in the 5,000m and 10,000m, and on a trajectory to become the greatest track and field distance runner in history.
But after a lightning-fast past three seasons that culminated with two medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the defending World Athletics Championships 10,000m gold medalist from Uganda has started this season slowly as he prepares for World Athletics Championships Oregon22, which begins Friday and runs through July 24 at the reimagined Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
“I just have one goal for this year and that’s to win a gold medal in Eugene,” Cheptegei said. “After the Olympics, I took it a bit easier to recover and we started 2022 gradually. I am happy where I am at, at this point, and look forward to the Championships. I feel I can defend my title.”
It wouldn’t be wise to bet against him.
Cheptegei, only 25, won the 10,000m at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, to earn an automatic bye into WCH Oregon22. He was the silver medalist in the 10,000m at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London, and last summer won the gold medal in the 5,000m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics eight days after taking the silver medal in the 10,000m.
And while the rest of the world took most of 2020 off because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cheptegei broke world records in the 5,000m and 10,000m in his only race of the season in each event, taking down long-held world records by the great Kenenisa Bekele.
“I can say through the years, my career has been an upwards journey, building blocks which fit together and a step-by-step process,” Cheptegei said. “I hope to continue this development together with the help of my team for many years to come.”
Cheptegei’s first international experience came at Hayward Field as a 17-year-old at the 2014 World U20 (Junior) Athletics Championships. On the opening day of the event, Cheptegei won the 10,000m in 28 minutes, 32.86 seconds, defeating a pair of Kenyan runners to win. Three days later, Cheptegei finished fourth in the 5,000m in what was then a personal best of 13:32.84. Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha won in 13:25.19.
"I really have good memories of that,” Cheptegei said. “It was my first time in the USA, as well. It was the start of, so far, a successful career and therefore, Hayward Field and its fans always remain special to me.”
Since 2015, Cheptegei has participated in every Prefontaine Classic except for 2018. When the Prefontaine Classic was moved to Stanford University in 2019 when Hayward Field was being rebuilt, Cheptegei won the 2-mile race there. Last year, three weeks after the Tokyo Olympics, he again won the 2-mile at the Pre Classic. This season, in his only 5,000m race, he won the Friday night session of the Pre Classic in 12 minutes, 57.99 seconds, which has him ranked eighth in the world this season.
“So far I have been in Hayward Field many times,” Cheptegei said, “and it really feels like coming home to me, it’s a special place with knowledgeable fans and now a fantastic new stadium. I am really happy we can battle for gold in Hayward Field this year.”
Cheptegei will see many familiar faces in both races at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 as most of the world’s top runners are doubling. The 10,000m will be up first for the world’s best distance runners at 1 p.m. Sunday. Grant Fisher of the U.S., who set the American record of 26 minutes, 33.84 seconds earlier this year, is the world leader, followed by Canada’s Mo Ahmed of the Bowerman Track Club in Portland, Ore., Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega, the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, and Berihu Aregawi. Other top 10,000m contenders include Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist, and Kenya’s Rodgers Kwemoi, Stanley Mburu and Daniel Mateiko.
The men’s 5,000m field may be even more loaded with its semifinals on July 21 and the final on July 24, the final day of competition. Ethiopia’s Muktar Edris is the two-time defending World Athletics Championships gold medalist. Barega was the silver medalist in Doha in 2019, and Ahmed was the bronze medalist in Doha and the silver medalist in Tokyo. Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir and Jacob Krop have the top two times in the world this year, set at the June 9 Rome Diamond League meet. Aregawi is third in the world rankings, having run 12 minutes, 50.05 seconds in the Saturday day portion of the Prefontaine Classic to set the Hayward Field record. Kejelcha, the 2014 World U20 champion at Hayward Field, is ranked fourth in the world, and Fisher will be a contender, as will Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500, who is running both events at WCH Oregon22 and ran what was then a world-leading time of 13:02.03 in May.
Running and winning against elite fields is nothing new for Cheptegei. In 2015, he finished ninth in the 10,000m at his first senior World Athletics Championships in Beijing after winning the African junior championship earlier that season. In 2016, he was sixth in the 10,000m at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and eighth in the 5,000m as a 19-year-old, and was undefeated in road races between 5K and 15K that season.
WATCH: The men’s 10,000m final from the 2017 World Athletics Championships
Cheptegei had an uncharacteristic hiccup when the 2017 World Cross Country Championships were held in Uganda, and he finished in 30th place despite being one of the favorites. But Cheptegei put that performance behind him in one of the greatest 10,000m championship races in history at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London.
“Of course, I would have wished to keep gold in Uganda at home,” Cheptegei said, “however, it also gave me some important lessons. It took hard work and determination and self-belief to come back, but luckily half a year later in London I could redeem myself.”
In London, Cheptegei, the up-and-coming star, finished second in 26:49.91, a personal best at the time, and only 43-hundreths of a second behind the veteran superstar, Great Britain’s Mo Farah, who won his third-straight 10,000m world title and the last of his six World Athletics Championships between 5,000m and 10,000m. Seven men in the field broke 27 minutes, two national records were broken, and 11 of the top 15 finishers set personal bests.
Cheptegei won Commonwealth Games gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m in 2018, setting up his 2019 season that saw him win the 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships in Doha after winning the Diamond League 5,000m finale a little over a month earlier. And he avenged his showing from the World Cross Country Championships by winning that race in Denmark in March.
“I can say 2019 was really a great year, obviously because of taking two senior titles, which I happily defend,” Cheptegei said. “It put my name on the map and boosted Ugandan distance running.”
WATCH: The men’s 10,000m final at the 2019 World Athletics Championships
In Doha, Cheptegei again found himself in a sprint to the finish in a World Athletics Championships 10,000m race. Like the London final, this one was also fast with six runners recording personal bests and two setting national records. Cheptegei took the lead with about a mile remaining. Kejelcha pulled on the final lap and had a one-step lead on the backstretch, but he was never able to make a definitive move for the lead, and Cheptegei did over the final half-lap, outsprinting Kejelcha over the final 150m to win in 26 minutes, 48.36 seconds, and winning by almost a second.
The victory by Cheptegei was the first by a Ugandan man in the World Athletics Championships and came seven days after Halimah Nakaayi was an upset winner for Uganda in the women’s 800m and became the country’s first World Athletics Championships gold medalist.
Without any championship races in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cheptegei took aim at the long-standing world records of Bekele, perhaps the greatest track and field long-distance runner ever, at 5,000m and 10,000m. Bekele won his first World Athletics Championships medal in 2003 where he won bronze in the 5,000m. Bekele won four-straight World Athletics Championships gold medals in the 10,000m from 2003-2009 and also won the 5,000m in Berlin in 2009. At the Olympics, Bekele won back-to-back 10,000m gold medals in 2004 and 2008 and after winning 5,000m silver in 2004, took the gold in that event in 2008.
After Bekele took the 5,000m and 10,000m world record away from countryman Haile Gebreselassie, he held them longer than any man ever has. He set the 5,000m record of 12:37.35 in 2004, and eight days later, broke the 10,000m record for the first time. Bekele improved his 10,000m record to 26:17.53 in 2005. Bekele’s records were long thought untouchable, and they were for a long time. When Barega ran 12:43.02 in 2018, it was the only time anyone had been within six seconds of the world record. And no one came within 15 seconds of Bekele’s 10,000m world record.
Until Cheptegei in 2020.
On Aug. 14, 2020, Cheptegei went after the 5,000m world record at the Herculis Diamond League meet in Monaco. His personal best of 12 minutes, 57, 14 seconds prior to that came from winning the Diamond League final in 2019. With the help of three pacers, Cheptegei ran 12:35.36 to become the first man from Uganda to hold the 5,000m world record. On Oct. 7, in a meet called World Record Day in Valencia, Spain, Cheptegei obliged by taking more than six seconds off Bekele’s 10,000m world record, running 26:11.00.
And so far, no one has come close to Cheptegei’s records either.
“Breaking the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter (records) put me into the class of those I admired over the years," Cheptegei said. “No one knows, of course, how much faster one can run. However, I believe strongly that I still have room to improve and possibly lower my world records.”
WATCH: Joshua Cheptegei wins the men’s 5,000m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Cheptegei further cemented his name alongside those he admired for years by winning the 5,000m seven days after finishing second in the 10,000m final with Barega winning it. Barega, however, did not double back for the 5,000m.
"My life has changed for good,” said Cheptegei, the first person from Uganda to win the Olympic 5,000m. “Olympic gold is actually joy unspeakable.”
How much longer Cheptegei will run on the track will be interesting to see. As fast as he is on the track, he’s just as impressive in road races. Ten days after setting his 10,000m world record, he finished fourth in the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Poland, running 59 minutes, 21 seconds. In his only race this season besides the 5,000m at the Prefontaine Classic, he won a 10K road race in France in March in 26:49. Since 2017, he’s undefeated in road races ranging from 5K to 10 miles. In December 2019, he set a 10K road world record by running 26:38 that was later broken. In February 2020, he became the first person to break 13 minutes in a 5K road race when he ran 12:51. That mark was broken by Aregawi in December 2021.
“In the past eight to nine years, we mold my career step by step," Cheptegei said. “I am still focused on the track for now, but also slowly moving into road racing as a next step. I am not yet done on the track, and still have many years left on the roads. So, in my view I will still be around for many years to come.”
That’s great news for track and field fans who will get another shot at seeing Cheptegei running fast with Sunday’s 10,000m on the third day of WCH Oregon22. It promises to be fast because Cheptegei doesn’t do anything slowly.
By Ashley Conklin