It is official that athletes Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo will not compete in the 5000m event in the current Paris 2024 Olympics in France.
In a brief statement to squad Uganda’s chef de mission, Moses Mwase, Faustino Kiwa, the head coach of the athletics squad, confirmed the position.
Kiwa tweeted, “I would like to notify the people of Uganda that our heroes, Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo, have been officially withdrawn from the 5,000-meter race scheduled for Wednesday, August 7, 2024.”
According to the letter, this is because they were unable to properly recover after the demanding10,000-meter race that both competitors participated in on Friday, August 2, 2024. They were exhausted and had arm and leg aches after the incident.
The letter also stated that the physio teams’ attempts to revive the athletes to their fully normal form had not been successful.
Kiwa suggested, “The coaching staff chose to pull them from the 5,000m to give them adequate time to properly recuperate, taking into consideration the coaching tenet “athlete first, winning second.”
Oscar Chelimo, the sole Ugandan competitor in the 5,000- meter race which begins with qualification on Wednesday, arrived in Paris on Sunday night.
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