Joshua Cheptegei looked like he was going to make history, by winning the IAAF World Cross Country Championship senior men’s race at the Kololo Independence Grounds, but it was not to be.
Cheered on by deafening noise from mammoth home crowd, Cheptegei led until the last lap when he was overtaken by eventual winner and defending champion Kenyan national Geofrey Kamworor.
Kololo went silent with heartbreak on seeing that the Ugandan couldn’t maintain the pace as several other runners by passed him and he struggled to the finish line.
The 20-year -old Cheptegei was born on September 12, 1996.
He represented Uganda at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres, finishing eighth and sixth respectively.
There was nothing to write home about Olympic gold medallist Stephen Kiprotich who participated in the race.
Earlier on, Jacob Kiplimo had done the country proud by winning gold in the under 20 race.