ATHLETICS NEWS - World Championship 10 000m silver medallist Joshua Cheptegei is the first big name to be announced to compete in the inaugural Athletix Grand Prix Series in March 2018.
The Athletix Grand Prix Series consists of three meetings: Ruimsig Stadium, Johannesburg on Thursday, 1 March 2018, Tuks Stadium, Tshwane on Thursday, 8 March 2018 and Dal Josaphat Stadium, Paarl on Thursday, 22 March 2018.
Cheptegei will be seen in action at the first two meetings. No stranger to South Africa, the Ugandan won the inaugural FNB Durban 10K CITYSURFRUN in October last year when he ran the fourth fastest time in the world for 10km and also set a new all-comers record of 27:28 for the distance.
This time though, the 21-year-old has his sights set on shorter, faster races. Cheptegei will open his 2018 campaign at the Athletix Grand Prix Meeting at the Ruimsig Stadium (Roodepoort) where he will line up against some of South Africa’s finest middle distance athletes which will include Jerry Motsau.
“I want to run a time of around 3:32 on 1 March. I need to improve my speed for my specialist events, the 5000m and 10 000m. The 1500m is perfect for that,” he said. Cheptegei has only run one 1500m in his career, the Nijmegen Global Athletics Meet in 2016 where he finished third in a time of 3:37.82.
