Rebecca Chelengat’s moment to celebrate after winning gold in women 10,000m finals.

By David Isabirye

Once again, the Uganda national anthem was played aloud in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
This was the third time that the anthem glorifying God and nature was performed.
The handful of Uganda inside the Prince Faisal Bin Fahad Stadium passionately sang along as well as the lady of the moment, Rebecca Chelangat who had moments earlier sprinted to the finishing line to win the grueling women’s 10,000m race with a time of 32:11:42.
She received the treasured gold medal and the ceremonial mascot.
Qatar’s Violah Motosio (32:13:59) took silver whilst Samiya Hassan Nour from Djibouti finished third to settle for bronze with a time of 32:17:72.
Another Ugandan Annet Chelangat ran 32:51:33 to take fourth place whilst Qatar’s Ruth Jebet was 5th (33:10:63).
“The gold medal I have won is humbling.” Rebecca, a 22-year-old grimaced.
“I thank my training colleagues back home in Kapachorwa. Without there, I could not have run and won alone. I am humbled” She added.
The gold took Uganda’s tally to 7 medals but later increased to 9 after two medals from 10,000 men runners Simba Samuel Cherop and Abel Chebet.
Uganda has five finals on Wednesday night as well as the Wrestling competition at the Boulevard SEF Sports Arena.
Halima NakaayI, Haron Adoli, Shida Leni, Tom Dradriga, Charity Cherop and Risper Cherop all compete on Tuesday night.
Nakaayi is up in the 800m women final, Adoli in the 400m final, Leni in the 400m women final, Dradriga in the 1500m final whilst the Cherop duo shall compete in the 5000m women final.
This is arguably the most successful championship since the Islamic Solidarity Games were initiated in 2005.

Oh hi there 👋

Sign up to receive the UOC monthly News Letter.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.