Uganda's Cheptegei floors Kenyan juniors in Eugene

EUGENE, USA

It was the case of a Ugandan teacher versus Kenyan students as Joshua Cheptegei, a first-year education undergraduate at Makerere University, floored Kenyan high school students to bag the first gold medal of the 15th IAAF World Junior Championships at the University of Oregon's famous Hayward Field stadium on Tuesday.

"Is he really under 19?" posed veteran athletics analyst David Monti ofRace Results Weekly athletics news service as Cheptegei strolled through the media interview area proudly displaying his gold medal.

Official records at these championships for athletes aged 19 years and below show Cheptegei was born on September 12, 1996, which would make him just 18.

But the mature way he cut through the field of 38 runners, like a hot knife through butter, would make any senior runner get some goose bumps and agent rub his hands with glee at the prospect of signing up a new star.

His victory was hardly a surprise as Cheptegei came into the competition with the fastest junior time of 27:56.26 that he clocked in Leiden last month.

Cheptegei's winning time of 28:32.86 was nowhere close to Kenya's Josephat Bett Kipkoech's championship record of 27:30.85, or indeed the hard-to-beat world junior record of 26:41.75 set by fallen legend Samuel Wanjiru in Brussels in 2005.

But it was good enough to relegate the Kenyan opposition, with Elvis Cheboi unable to rock the crowd like his legendary American namesake, settling for silver in 28:35.20, followed by Nicholas Kosimbei (28:38.86).

PACE SETTERS

The medallists will have the Japanese pair of Keisuke Nakatani and Hazuma Hattori to thank for setting the pace, at one point opening up a 60-metre gap on the trailing pack led by Cheboi, who threw down the gauntlet with three laps to go, and Cheptegei gladly accepted the challenge.

"I had to close the gap because if I didn't, it would have been disastrous," said Cheboi, a Form Four leaver from the athletics-rich Riruta Secondary School in Nairobi who hails from Keringet, near Kericho. "I'm very happy that I won a silver medal for my country."

Cheptegei, who trains in Kapchorwa, near the Mt Elgon Forest, was delighted with Uganda's latest triumph over Kenyan rivals.

"I know most of the top Kenyan runners from near my home on the border like Patrick Komon, Moses Masai and Geoffrey Kipsang Kamworor," he said.

"I want to focus on the track and then much later go to road races," the undergraduate student in English literature and linguistics at Makerere added.

"My victory means a lot for my country as we disappointed during the Africa Cross Country Championships in Kampala early this year and we had to do something special to make up for that."

Earlier in the day on the opening day of these championships, there was just one Kenyan casualty after US-based Raymond Kibet was eliminated from the 400 metres as Kenya's overall team captain here, Alexander Lerionka Sampao, cruised to the semi-finals after winning the opening heat at Hayward Field.

NOT IMPRESSED

But despite going through, Sampao wasn't too happy.

"Normally I would run a 46-second race without breaking sweat, but I struggled today," said the overall Team Kenya captain, who clocked a slow 46.91 in winning his heat.

Jonathan Sawe led compatriot Hilary Ngetich into Thursday's final of the 1,500m by clocking the fastest, gun-to-tape leading time in qualifying, 3:41.35 despite complaining of the heat and humidity of Oregon.

"It was a bit too hot and humid but I look forward to the final and hope for a fast pace. If the pace will be slow, then I will have problems, but if it's fast, I stand a better chance," said Sawe who trains in Kaptagat.

The Kenyan pair of Maximila Imali and Margaret Wambui both cruised into the 800 metres semi-finals with Wambui running the second fastest time of the opening round, 2:04.24 in, interestingly, only her second 800 metres race, having made a debut in the two-lap race at the Kenyan trials for these championships.

The highlights in Day Two on Wednesday will be the men's 400m and women's 800m semis and the final of the finals in the women's 5,000m, where Kenya has Agnes Jebet Tirop and Loice Chemnung, who will battle the Ethiopian pair of Alemetu Haroye (fastest in the field with the season's best 14:52.67) and Alemitu Hawi.