Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo will not participate in the 5000m event at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics. The decision was officially announced by Faustino Kiwa, head coach of the Uganda athletics team, in a brief statement to the team's chef de mission, Moses Mwase.
Kiwa stated, "I wish to inform Ugandans that our heroes Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo have been officially withdrawn from the 5000m race scheduled for Wednesday, August 7th, 2024."
This disappointing news comes after Cheptegei's demanding 10,000m race last Friday, where he set a new Olympic record with a time of 26:43.14. Both athletes have not been able to fully recover from the effort.
