Moses Kipsiro wins the 2007 All-Africa Games 5000m in Algiers (© AFP / Getty Images)
If 2007 represented a breakthrough into world class for Uganda’s World Championships 5000m bronze medallist Moses Kipsiro his raw potential would hint he is capable of even more in 2008.
The 21-year-old Ugandan started the year in fine fettle, defending his Belfast International Cross Country title - IAAF XC permit race - last Saturday (5 Jan) with an impressive five-second win from Kenya’s Barnabas Kosgei on his first ever race on snow - click here for race report.
Yet despite his ability over the country, his blistering speed marks him out as an even more dangerous customer on the track. Last year he proved an all-round ability to not only run fast times – he recorded a national record of 12:50.72 in Brussels to stand fourth on the 2007 World Lists for 5000m - but more importantly an aptitude for championship racing as he showed when winning a bronze medal in a slow, tactical 5000m final in Osaka.
Kipsiro, from a family of nine brothers and four sisters, was raised on a farm in Chesimat and had the tough, hard upbringing typical of so many world class endurance runners from East Africa. He worked in the fields looking after the cows and helping grow the wheat and maize but Kipsiro always had a passion for running.
“When I was young I loved running,” Kipsiro explained. “I was always the one sent for milk from Chesimat to Singare which is quite a journey. I would run all the way there and back. I think I have a running gene in me, as both my mother and father used to run.”
“I used to hear on the radio about the great runners like Paul Tergat, Haile Gebrselassie, Wilson Kipketer and Moses Kiptanui. When there was athletics on the radio it made me so happy.”
Kipsiro made his major international debut at the 2003 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne, finishing 18th in the junior race. However, knee problems restricted his development until he made a big advance in 2006, landing the 10,000m gold medal at the African Championships and clocking 13:01.88 for the 5000m in Stockholm.
Training 120-150km a week in Bukwo, on the slopes of Mt Elgon, in a large group alongside his countryman and good friend Boniface Kiprop, the 2004 Olympic Games fourth-placer, Kipsiro enjoyed his best winter’s training yet last year. However, he was forced to drop out of the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa mid-race with a groin injury and missed a large chunk of training.
Nursed back to full fitness by UK-based physio Jess Nugent and under the close supervision of his coach and manager, Ricky Simms, the Ugandan was forced to play catch up in his training.
However, he showed no ill-effects from the disruption by landing the 5000m title at the All Africa Games in Algiers and just two days later set a new national 3000m record of 7:32.03 in Monaco.
Better was to follow as later last summer he exceeded his own expectations by winning the bronze medal in the 5000m final at the World Championships behind Bernard Lagat.
But the modest Kipsiro has few doubts as to what contributed to his improvement last year.
“I did a lot of training last year, better than before,” he explained. “I went to camp in Kenya and trained hard with the group there for most of the year. Then I really worked on my speed when I came to London. Ricky gives me a good training programme and I was well treated for injuries in London.”
Kipsiro proved by his victory in Belfast last weekend he is running every inch as well as last year and his next major cross challenge will come in Seville on 20 January - IAAF Permit XC race. Beyond that he may try his hand at one or two indoor races before targeting a medal at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh on 30 March.
But this year it is all about the Olympic 5000m in Beijing. He is far too polite to make wild predictions on how he believes he will fare but he pointed to at least eight potential rivals for the title in China.
“All my training partners including (Joseph) Ebuya, (Micah) Kogo, (Mike) Kigen; outside our group (Kenenisa) Bekele, (Eliud) Kipchoge, (Bernard) Lagat, (Sileshi) Sihine,” he said of potential rivals in Beijing. And if (Saif Saaeed) Shaheen runs 5km he too will be strong.”
Steve Landells for the IAAF
