After a rather disappointing second-place finish in the men’s 10,000m race, Joshua Cheptegei has redeemed himself at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with gold in the 5000m final.

Cheptegei clocked 12:58.15 to cross the finish line first ahead of Canada’s Ahmed Mohammed and USA’s Chelimo Paul in second and third place respectively.

The current world record holder and world champion showed intent for the top step of the podium when he charged for the front of the pack from start. And throughout the race, he did not look like he would miss the target.

However, he was only ahead of the tight pack once – at the 3000m mark in 7:55.25 – with the first two kilometre marks being led by fellow Ugandan compatriot Jacob Kiplimo and the fourth by Kenyan Kimeli Nicholas Kipkorir.

Kiplimo came in 5th while his younger brother Oscar Chelimo was the last to cross the finish in 16th place.

This medal haul brings Uganda’s tally to 4 with two gold – the other won by Peruth Chemutai, one silver and one bronze.

Final

On the other hand, Women’s 1500m final was too fast for Winnie Nanyondo as she managed to grab a seventh position

Winnie Nanyondo has finished seventh in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games women’s 1500m final, 6.80 seconds behind the eventual winner Faith Kipyegon.

Despite clocking 3:59.80 in the event for her season-best result, the race was too fast for Nanyondo to earn a fifth medal for Uganda at the games.

Nanyondo began the race, running among the front runners to clock 15.2 at the 100m mark which she maintained until about 400m. Then she dropped off as the pace picked up upfront. By the 1000m mark, she was in 10th place well outside contention for a podium place.

However, she injected pace in her final 300m to gain three places and complete her season best performance in Tokyo.