Ugandans couldn’t hold onto their happiness and joy as Jocab Kiplimo and Joshua Cheptegei won gold and silver respectively in the New York half marathon held on Sunday.
At the peek of his best, Kiplimo comfortably won the race finishing at 1:01:09 while his counterpart came second reaching the finishing line 38 seconds past Kiplimo’s winning time.
This followed a wash of congratulatory messages across all social network platforms from people across all walks of life including the president and other stakeholders.
On his tweeter account Mr Museveni tweeted
…..”I congratulate you Jacob Kiplimo and Joshua Cheptegei upon wining Gold and Silver respectively in New York City Marathon. Your countrymen and country women are proud of your achievement.”
Mr Peter Ogwang the state minister for sports also could couldn’t hold his joy as he went and tweeted
“ congratulations Jacob Kiplimo and Joshua Cheptegei for the gold and Silver respectively.”
However our media learnt that on top of the medals the duo won cash prizes worth millions
As the first runner Kiplimo won Shs 74m while Cheptegei received Shs 37m respectively.
Having had a perfect start in 2023 Kiplimo will lead back to a training regime ahead of his quest for the double at the Budapest World Championships in Hungary come August.
Cheptegei will attempt to polish up over the next four months before chasing a back to back 10000m world title success in Budapest
