Cheptegei has set the bar so high for everyone in the world, including himself. When the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed by a year because of the coronavirus, the delay was a blow for IOC, Japan and tens of thousands of athletes who were preparing to compete at the world’s biggest games.
For Cheptegei, common consensus was that the deferment denied him a chance to win the only medal missing in his illustrious collection – the Olympic medallion which so happens to be the most prestigious of all.
But after last Friday’s stunning performance, it is apparent the rescheduling of the Olympics didn’t deny Cheptegei the 10,000m gold in Tokyo; it simply delayed his victory.
He is at the peak of his powers and performing at a level where his biggest rival is himself. Only a small field of athletes in history – think the likes of Usain Bolt, Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie – reached that rare competitive zone where their opponent perennially became the clock.
Cheptegei possesses the greatest weapon of long-distance champions, a devastating final kick, and an underrated strength in his arsenal is a strong temperament.
It is only three years ago at Kololo ceremonial grounds where he faced the brunt of social media after capitulating in the men’s senior 10km race.
He secured defeat from the jaws of victory after fading terribly with lactic acidosis in the final kilometer to finish a distant 30th before a capacity home crowd that included President Museveni and the First Lady Janet. That painful memory is now fully erased in the memory of Ugandan athletics. It is like it never happened.
“I will always use that experience to win, win and win,” Cheptegei told The Observer shortly after winning the Commonwealth 5,000 and 10,000m at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia as he referred to the demons of Kololo.
“I have not stopped winning; I will win more to completely remove it in history.”
To say he has more than succeeded would be putting it mildly. His accomplishments in the last three years arguably rank him as the finest athlete in Ugandan history, even without the Olympic medal.
400-metre hurdler John Akii-Bua won Uganda’s first Olympic medal in world record time at the 1972 Munich Olympics and marathoner Stephen Kiprotich was the first Ugandan to be an Olympic and IAAF world champion. Both have compelling cases.
Yet Cheptegei’s CV is increasingly becoming too formidable for everyone including Akii-Bua and Kiprotich. To go along with the three world records are a host of gold medals across various global competitions.
There is the 2014 world junior championship gold in Eugene, the 2018 Commonwealth double, the 2019 world cross-country gold in both the individual and team races and the 10,000m gold at the Doha world championships.
Davis Kamoga, the 1996 Olympic bronze medalist, rates Cheptegei as Uganda’s best ever athlete ever.
“Before Friday, I probably had Akii-Bua as number one with Kiprotich number two. But my view has changed. Cheptegei now holds three world records including one on the track and if you add up his other achievements in athletics, I think he is the greatest.”
Uganda Olympic Committee president William Blick believes Cheptegei is on his way to being the greatest ever. “If the Olympics had taken place, it would have been the same story. At the Olympics next year, he will bag the 5000 and 10,000m gold.”
Cheptegei returned home by road from Nairobi on Sunday night and is now in self-quarantine.