Yahoo News Cheptegei calls out Mo Farah for missing the World Half Championships
At a press conference before the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, Joshua Cheptegei called out Mo Farah for missing the event.
Ugandan Cheptegei recently broke the 5000m and 10,000m world records.
Joshua Cheptegei went into the weekend’s World Half Marathon Championships as the favourite, having recently broken the 5000m and 10,000m world records. On Saturday, however, it was Cheptegei's 19-year-old Ugandan teammate, Jacob Kiplimo, who won, in a championship record time of 58:49. Cheptegei (24), who was running his first half marathon, finished in fourth place, with a time of 59:21.
In the press conference before the race, Cheptegei expressed his surprise at Mo Farah’s decision not to race at the weekend. ‘I thought we would have a more exciting field. Like, of course, we have the Kenyans, we have the Ethiopians, but still I was surprised — and I’m still surprised — why Mo Farah is not part of the field…It’s quite really ridiculous that he’s not in the field.’
Just over a month ago, Farah set a world record for the one-hour run, completing 21,330 metres in an hour. He also recently paced the men's elite race at the Virgin Money London Marathon.
After the race, Cheptegei said, ‘I couldn’t give more than that. I have been training more for 5000m and 10,000m so I was not well prepared for it, but I’m very happy – running a sub-60 is really special for me. My body was really going very well but I discovered I still had some fatigue in the legs.’
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