Ethiopians guteni shanko

World Athletics Gold Label Road: It was a day of delight for the Ugandan runners, as Sarah Chelangat and Joshua Cheptegei took home the top prize in their respective sections in TCS World 10K, a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race, held here on Sunday. Incidentally, they were the first athletes from their country to take home the World 10K titles, along with a prize of USD 26,000 each.

When the women took the starting line-up at 5:30 am, a big question arose in the minds of fans and followers as eight of the best women with personal best timings faster than the event records set their foot on the Bengaluru roads. However, Sarah had a different strategy in mind as she broke away from the rest of the runners after the first two kilometres and maintained the lead thereafter.

Sarah could easily be mistaken for a Kenyan, as Chelangat is a popular family name among them. She increased her pace once she parted from the rest of the field and passed through the halfway mark at 15:23. At that stage, it was 20 seconds faster than that of Cintia and Ethiopians Guteni Shanko and Asmarech Anley. The gap started widening bigger and bigger thereafter, as Sarah had not looked back to see where her rivals were at any point in the race.