Cheptegei cements status as greatest

The world of sport continues to wax lyrical about the achievements of Cheptegei who etched his name further in the annals of history with his latest gold medal at the ongoing IAAF World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

As MARK NAMANYA writes, we must never take his greatness for granted one of the problems with human nature is that we tend to forget easily. When something extraordinary happens over and over again in our midst, we subconsciously assume that it was always meant to occur after all. We easily move on. We take superhuman accomplishments as a formality.

It has been three days since Joshua Cheptegei reminded us of his God-given talent on the track. There was a time when Cheptegei used to win gold medals. But times have changed since. These days gold medals fight for him. The Kapchorwa-born superstar has turned winning into a formality so much that we have disregarded the degree of difficulty in doing what he does.

The hardest thing in sport, all sport as a matter of fact, is not winning. Anyone can win by a stroke of fate or luck. The most challenging aspect of sport is to win and sustain the capacity to stay up there as a champion. That calls for heightened levels of focus, drive, determination, enthusiasm, discipline and hard work. It is 2,342 days since Cheptegei was a laughing stock at the 2017 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships at Kololo Ceremonial grounds before a huge crowd that included President Museveni and the

First Lady, Janet Museveni. When he capitulated before a partisan home crowd, he hogged the headlines for the wrong reasons. That is more than six years ago. Since then, he has owned the headlines of local and international media for the right seasons. There is no superlative that hasn’t been used to emphasize the brilliance of unquestionably the greatest sportsman in the history of the pre-Independence and post Independence Uganda.

Cheptegei today is a millionaire. Sunday’s victory under a hot, humid night earned him a cool Shs 260m ($70,000). He has a very good chance of collecting more winnings when he lines up in the heats of the 5,000m later today at the 36,000-seater National Athletics Centre in Budapest.

The final is due on Saturday, August 26. Cheptegei, as the reigning world record holder of the 5,000m and 10,000m, commands a huge premium in endorsement deals because he stands on his own at the apex of long-distance running on the globe.

He is the Usain Bolt of the long races. His medal collection rivals that of any athlete in history considering that he has won golds at the IAAF World Cross-Country, World Championships, Commonwealth Games, Olympics and road races.

Yet he hasn’t allowed complacency to creep in. Cheptegei has not allowed his fame and wealth to get the better of him. Given that he is only 26, it speaks volumes for his mental strength and single-mindedness to aspire for new heights every single year.

The last time Cheptegei was beaten in the 10,000m at the World Championships was in 2017 in London. I was inside the stadium for that race and at the time marveled at how he had completed the redemption mission having been ridiculed four months earlier for his shambles at Kololo in the men’s senior cross-country race.

But the man who beat him, Great Britain’s Mo Farah, noted that Cheptegei’s stardom was only a matter of time.

“He [Cheptegei] will win the 10,000m gold very soon,” Farah noted in the press conference following his victory. While Farah’s words have turned prophetic, it is likely that the Great Britain legend is as shocked with how dominant Cheptegei has been over the last six years.

A case can be made that there is nothing left to conquer for Cheptegei on the track. If he retired today, his legacy is etched in stone for eternity.

But the man’s quest for history knows no bounds, and that perhaps is what sets him apart from every other sportsman to have been born in these parts. Cheptegei is living proof that you can be your greatest challenge every single day of your existence. He will not rest on his laurels and soak in the admiration; that moment will come the day he announces his retirement.

For now, the history-churning machine called Cheptegei continues to rewrite the record books. There is no evidence to suggest he has slowed down. Which is inevitably bad news for his rivals like Kenya’s Daniel Simiu Ebenyo and Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega.