Given his recent form, Joshua Cheptegei was without doubt Uganda’s hopeful for an individual medal heading into the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
He set a blistering pace to destroy the field but lost his lead with just under a kilometer to go when he horribly slowed down and walked to the finish line as Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor retained his title.
Cheptegei, who sent the thousands of Ugandans at Kololo into frenzy when he charged in the final, finished a distant 30th and Twitter was unforgiving.
#iaafkampala2017. Doing 160kph then radiator goes burst pic.twitter.com/9nLHtrvshC
— Share-Man (@mosesmuchiri1) March 26, 2017
This is how Cheptegei was running for Uganda in the last rounds. BUT WHY US??😂😂 #iaafkampala2017 pic.twitter.com/CSBReiQUKE
— Ricky (@kwitonder) March 26, 2017
However, Cheptegei’s perseverance to finish the race eventually paid off as Uganda took team bronze by 3 points.
Cheptegei’s desperate efforts to finish the race eventually paid off as Uganda takes team bronze by just 3 points! #iaafkampala2017
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) March 26, 2017
Some people recognized his effort including Uganda Cranes coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojević
Sport line between hero&zero is very tiny as J.CHEPTEGEI felt that.When everyone forgot him I pledge support knowing he will win many races
— MICHOcoach-WOLF OF SERBIA (@michocoach) March 27, 2017
