One third of Uganda’s track team to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will test themselves tonight at the 60th edition of the Golden Spike in Ostrava, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting.
All eyes will however be on multi-world record holder Joshua Cheptegei who will be attempting to erase a 25 year 3000m record of 7:20.67 set by Kenyan Daniel Komen. Cheptegei’s current best for 3000m is 7:33.26, which means he will have to cut a massive 13 seconds to claim his third track world record.
Also in action tonight will be 20-year-old World Half Marathon champion Jacob Kiplimo, who will be running to confirm which of the long distance races he will enter.
At last year’s Golden Spike, the Ugandan junior won the 5000m clocking a personal best of 12:48.63. Qualification for Tokyo is 27:28.00.
The meeting at Mestsky Stadion in the Czech city will stage 20 disciplines – the women’s 200m, 800m, 1500m, 400m hurdles, hammer and javelin, plus the men’s 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m, 10,000m, 3000m steeplechase, 400m hurdles, pole vault, long jump, triple jump, shot put and javelin.
