Kampala won’t be a cup of tea for Kenyans, warns Kiprotich

Uganda’s former world and Olympic marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich serves mid-morning tea at the Global Sports Communication’s distance running camp in Kaptagat, Elgeyo-Marakwet County in the past. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA |

What you need to know:

  • Hosts field strong team, confident of turning tables on neighbour

Uganda’s former world and Olympic marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich is a brave man.

Kiprotich stunned the world when he won the World Championships marathon gold medal in Moscow in 2013, just 12 months after clinching the Olympic title in London.

At the two big stages, he floored fancied Kenyan rivals who still haven’t come round to believing that a Ugandan can snatch gold medals from under their noses.

And as if to rub it in, the amiable Kiprotich has based his training for major championships in the backyard of his Kenyan rivals at Kaptagat in Elgeyo-Marakwet County.

That’s where he has been preparing for Sunday’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships in his home city of Kampala.

GOOD TRAINING GROUNDS

The Uganda Prisons officer, who almost joined the Kenya Defence Forces a few years ago, qualified for the World Cross Country Championships after performing well with the prisons team at the national championships and trials in Kampala.

“I went to Kampala for trials where I represented my club, the Uganda Prisons team, and after getting the ticket, I decided to come back to Kaptagat where I’m used to,” he told Nation Sport in Kaptagat recently.

“I like this place because it has a good training grounds for marathon races which is my goal,” said Kiprotich after a long run. He shares the same management team — Global Sports Communications — with Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, and World Half Marathon champion Geoffrey Kamworor, the latter who is also in Kenya’s team for Sunday’s championship in Kampala and is the defending champion having won the 2015 title in Guiyang, China.

In the Uganda cross country team with Kiprotich is 2014 World Junior Championships 10,000 metres gold medalist Joshua Cheptegei, Mande Bushendich, Stephen Kissa, Abdalla Kibet Mande, Philip Kipyeko, Fred Musobo and Timothy Toroitich.

REAL BATTLE AWAITS KENYA

“My teammates back at home are really working hard in training and I know it will be a tough competition.

“Kamworor, who is my training mate here, is a tough athlete but I will also work extra hard to make sure we wrestle the title from him,” said Kiprotich.

Kiprotich says since they started running, they have never met in a competition and he will be happy to run against Kamworor. “I will be on home ground which is more advantageous to me and I will be happy to compete with Kamworor because we have never met in any race before,” added Kiprotich.

He said that he is focused ahead of Sunday’s race, confident he will break the cross country duck, having let victory slip away at the 2010 championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Kiprotich tells ‘Team Kenya’ to feel free when in Kampala but was quick to warn his Kenyan rivals that a “real battle” awaits them at the Kololo Independence Grounds.

“I want to welcome team Kenya in Kampala and they should feel at home but I must warn them that they should prepare for a real battle.

“This time since the competition is at home, we will run as a team and go for gold,” said Kiprotich.