By Keefa Nuwahereza
Ugandan celebrated athlete and world record breaker Joshua Cheptegei has been nominated for the World Athletics Awards 2020.
Cheptegei, who has exhibited an outstanding performance this year and all throughout his career, has been nominated for Male Athlete of the Year 2020 and all it will take him to win is his fans voting for him.
Star Profile
Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei (born 12 September 1996) is a Ugandan long-distance runner and 2019 world champion in the 10,000 m.
He is the tenth man in history to hold the 5,000 m and 10,000 m world records concurrently, both set in 2020.
In 2017, he became the silver medalist in the 10,000 metres event at the World Championship in London.
In 2018, he set a world record for the 15 km road race and became the cross country world champion in 2019.
In 2020, at a road race in Monaco, he set a new world road 5 km record of 12:51, breaking through the event’s 13-minute barrier, taking 9 seconds from the previous best time of 13:00, set by Kenya’s Sammy Kipketer in 2000.
In August 2020, at the Monaco Diamond League meet, he set a new 5000 metres world record of 12:35.36, breaking Kenenisa Bekele’s 16-year-old world record of 12:37.35 set in Hengelo.
On 7 October 2020, in Valencia, he set a world record time of 26:11.00 in the 10000 meters, which again improved on Kenenisa Bekele’s 15-year-old record by more than 6 seconds.
He is a silver medallist in the 10,000 metres at the 2017 World Championships in London.
He also competed in the 10,000 metres at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, finishing ninth.
He ran at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres, finishing eighth and sixth respectively.[
Cheptegei was the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres champion at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Cheptegei is a four-time winner of the Zevenheuvelenloop 15 km road race in Nijmegen, Netherlands.
In 2018 Cheptegei set the world record for a 15 km road race.
He finished in 41:05 and improved the world record by 8 seconds, formerly set by Leonard Komon at the Zevenheuvelenloop in 2010.
Abrar Osman finished second with 42:34 and the 2017 5000 m world champion Muktar Edris placed third with 42:56.
Cheptegei was the winner of the senior men’s race at the 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. He won in 31:40 on the 10.24 km course.
Ugandan teammate Jacob Kiplimo finished second in 31:44, while Thomas Ayeko placed seventh, and Joseph Ayeko tenth; Uganda won the team first-place title.