Joshua Cheptegei and a trio of other elite runners finally beat the travel hitches to reach France ahead of the Monaco Diamond League (DL) Meeting due this Friday.
Cheptegei and his training Stephen Kissa alongside middle-distance pairing of Winnie Nanyondo and Halimah Nakaayi were aided by the Ugandan government to fly out at a time during the coronavirus pandemic.
The country’s borders are still shut and Entebbe Airport is closed but the government helped the athletes’ quartet with a chartered flight to Nairobi on Saturday night following a luncheon with Minister of Education and Sports First Lady Janet Museveni.
The athletes flew from Nairobi to Turkish city Istanbul on Saturday and on Monday morning, they landed in French town of Nice from where they connected by road to Monaco.
Already, Cheptegei and company had warm-up drills on Monday and Tuesday ahead of the DL event.
Nakaayi, who won the world 800m title at the Doha World Championships last September, and Nanyondo will run the 1000m race.
World 10000m champion Cheptegei bids to break a fourth world record (WR) in his career when he lines-up for the 5000m at the Stade Louis II. Kissa will act as one of his pace makers on the night.
Cheptegei has already broken three WR over the past three years; the 15km mark at the Seven Hills Run in Nijmegen, Netherlands in 2018.
Last year, Cheptegei, in addition to the World Cross-country gold, 5000m DL trophy and the 10000m title, set a WR over the 10km race at the Valencia Alfonso 10K in Spain.
He now returns to Monaco, a city where he rewrote the 5km WR at the Monaco Herculis Run on February 16.
CHEPTEGEI AT THE DIAMOND LEAGUE
2015
May 29: Eugene, USA: 8th,
27:27.57 (10000m)
2016
May 14: Shanghai, China: 2nd,
13:00.60 (5000m)
May 28: Eugene, USA: 8th,
13:07.53 (5000m)
2017
May 27: Eugene, USA: 4th,
13:02.84 (5000m)
July 6: Lausanne, Switzerland: 3rd,
12:59.83 (5000m)
2019
May 18: Shanghai, China: 7th,
13:06.68 (5000m)
June 13: Oslo, Norway: 2nd,
7:33.26 (3000m)
June 30: Eugene, USA: 1st,
8:07.54 (Two miles)
Aug 29: Zürich, Switzerland: 1st,
12:57.41 (5000m)
2019 DIAMOND LEAGUE - UGANDA’S WINS
June 13 - Oslo, Norway: Halimah Nakaayi (800m)
June 30 - Eugene, USA: Joshua Cheptegei (2-Mile Run)
Aug 18 - Birmingham, UK: Ronald Musagala (1500m)
Aug 24 - Paris, France: Ronald Musagala (1500m)
Aug 29 - Zurich: Joshua Cheptegei (5000m)
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This writer is a global broadcaster and as well scribe with Daily Monitor Newspaper and sports presenter with Radio One FM 90 in Kampala. Follow him on Twitter: @AllanDarren and his Facebook Page: Darren Allan Kyeyune