At 28, Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei has achieved practically all the things on the 400m oval. He’s received gold medals and set world data in his signature 5,000m and 10,000m occasions, however he’s able to put all that behind him. On Friday on the elite press convention for Sunday’s Tokyo Marathon, the Ugandan advised reporters he’s “completely carried out” working on the monitor.
A reporter requested Cheptegei, the quickest man ever over 10,000m, whether or not he would return to Tokyo in September for the 2025 World Athletics Championships. “I’ve actually had unimaginable moments on the monitor, particularly successful many medals from World Championships and Olympic Video games, however I’ve been doing this for fairly a very long time and now it’s the fitting time for me to transition and see the opposite a part of life,” Cheptegei stated, alluding to the marathon.
Cheptegei’s profession on the monitor has earned him three Olympic medals (two gold, one silver) and 4 world championship medals within the males’s 10,000m occasion—a distance at which he set the mind-numbing world file of 26 minutes and 11 seconds on the Monaco Diamond League in 2020.
“I’ll miss the monitor, however I’ve to depart,” he stated.
On Sunday, Cheptegei will proceed the latest chapter of his profession—the marathon. Regardless of his spectacular monitor resume, he struggled in his marathon debut two years in the past in Valencia, ending thirty seventh general in 2:08:59.
Cheptegei advised reporters his objective for Sunday is to maintain up with the boys’s defending champion and Paris 2024 bronze medallist, Benson Kipruto of Kenya, plus Deresa Geleta of Ethiopia, and attempt to set a brand new private finest. Kipruto set a course file throughout his win on the Tokyo Marathon final yr in 2:02:16, whereas Geleta set a large private finest in his final marathon (Valencia 2024) with a time of two:02:38.
Eliud Kipchoge believes Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei can break marathon world file
Ethiopia’s Sutume Kebede eyes title defence
Kipruto isn’t the one champion returning to Tokyo to defend their title. Within the girls’s subject, Ethiopia’s Sutume Kebede, who set a Japanese all-comers’ file of two:15:55 when successful the marathon final yr, might be joined by 4 others who’ve dipped below 2:18 in a subject that incorporates a whole of 9 sub-2:20 girls.
A type of runners is one other former Tokyo Marathon winner, Rosemary Wanjiru, who’s returning after her victory in 2023. It was initially introduced that 2022 winner Brigid Kosgei, the previous world record-holder, would even be racing, however organizers have since introduced her withdrawal.
Along with her win in Tokyo final yr, Kebede completed second on the 2024 Chicago Marathon behind the brand new girls’s world file holder, Ruth Chepngetich. This might be Kebede’s first race since her win on the Tata Metal Kolkata World 25K in December.