The 30th edition of the Olympics gets into day thirteen tomorrow in London. For Uganda, already 11 of our 15 participants are out and will ponder about earning slots to the next Games in Rio de Janiero in 2016. And so it will be a 20-year Olympic medal haul for the ‘Pearl of Africa’ if the remaining athletes fail to land a medal in London. For the second time, Geofrey Kusuro will represent his country at the Olympiad games when he runs alongside 22 other athletes in heat one of the men’s 5000m at the Olympic Stadium.
At 23, the 2009 World Mountain Running gold medalist will hope to reach the 12 and half lap race final at the Games having finished 11th in a time of 13:50.50 four years ago at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing. And he will be in the fray alongside 10000m gold winner home boy Mo Farah. Farah’s success earned Great Britain their sixth gold on Saturday, just after Jessica Ennis’ heptathlon triumph.
Kusuro will also pace up with 2008 bronze medalist Edwin Soi Cheruyiot. Soi beat Kipsiro last term, something that still haunts Uganda’s top medal prospect. Another favourite is Australian Collis Birmingham. He defeated Moses Kipsiro at the London Aviva Meet prior to the start of this year’s Olympics.