UGANDA:Cherop, Cheptegei take ISU honours

Michael Cherop and Lillian Cheptegei were crowned winners of the ISU 10km road run held at Lubowa Sunday morning.  It was a great run and great finish for Cherop, who beat training mate Fred Arapsudi in the 13^th edition of the annual event.

Cherop, one of the athletes on the men’s senior national cross country team broke away from his only chasing compatriot Arapsudi to win the race in a time of 33 minutes 41.1 seconds.

ISU 10km run results

Men

1. Michael Cherop (IND) 33:41.1

2. Fred Arapsudi (Indi) 33:46.2

3. Joseph Nsubuga (UPDF) 35:31.00

Women

1. Lillian Cheptegei (UPDF) 40:20.5

2. Primo Twikirize (Rwenzori) 48:04.5

Cherop had managed to break away from the chasing pack of over 400 runners as he led a group of elite athletes in the lead.  But with the rains pounding them through a muddy road, the pace decreased with all of them eyeing the top accolades in the annual event.

However, marathon runner Joseph Nsubuga, who had kept with the leading duo broke off  towards the last hill as the youngster Cherop and Arapsudi increased the pace.

They entered the ISU gate together, running shoulder to shoulder, but Cherop was still stronger of the two as he increased the pace to beat his compatriot by over five seconds.

“It was a good race but I am looking at shifting to the track,” he said after the race.

Lillian Cheptegei also won the women event, though Adero Nyakisi earlier looked ta s favourite failed to make a return in the race.