Ugandan long distance runner Joshua Cheptegei has revealed some of the lessons he has learned in Coronavirus-blighted 2020.
From the year seeming quite a well planned one to the Coronavirus scourge, most athletes have had to re-adjust their schedules with uncertainty.
This year, Cheptegei started with the 5 km Herculis in Monaco, setting a new world record if 12:51 – a 27 second improvement from Kenyan Rhonex Kipruto’s 13:18.
He then ran 12:35:36 to break Kenenisa Bekele’s 5000m world record set in 2004 at the Monaco Diamond League meeting on August 14th.
He again smashed Bekele’s 15-year old 10,000m world record of 2005 at the NN Valencia World Record Day, Estadio de Atletismo del Turia, Valencia on October 7th.
Talking the lessons he has learned with World Athletics, Cheptegei said; “This year has really taught me one special thing which is to persist amidst adversity, difficulty.
“Resilience is the key to becoming better and stronger. In life it is through challenges that you become more stronger, so when I did Valencia 10,000m, I still wanted to discover the challenge in the World Half Marathon.
“So many people thought I was doing it for fun ….despite having not trained for it.”