Victor Kiplangat: Uganda wins first-ever CWG 2022 medal

• Victor Kiplangat managed to win Uganda’s first-ever.
• Commonwealth Games marathon gold on Saturday.
• Birmingham despite making a mistake about a mile from the finish line.

Victor Kiplangat barely misstopped up until his moment of confusion, quickly cool himself, finished in 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 55 seconds.

I was perplexed by the motorcycle riders, he said. “They advised me to go back,” Even so, I succeeded in finishing. For Australian Jessica Stenson, who converted two consecutive bronze medals into gold at the end of the women’s race, there were no such navigational issues.

Despite making a mistake, Kiplangat finished more than a minute and a half ahead of Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania, who won the bronze medal at the 2017 global championships.

He might have beaten the venerable Games mark set by Ian Thompson of England (2:09.12), which was set in Christchurch in 1974, if not for that brief detour.

“I believed that I had some hope (of beating it) when I reached 35 kilometres,” he said, adding that achieving history for his nation was more than enough consolation.

“I think Uganda is happy with me today. This is what we’ve been waiting for,” he remarked.

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After his victory, Kiplangat, who was not chosen for Uganda’s team at the most recent global championships in Eugene, Oregon, was bursting with confidence.

I think I’ll be a great man like Joshua Cheptegei from Uganda and Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya, he declared.

While Kipchoge is a two-time world 10,000m champion, Cheptegei is the Olympic champion over 5,000 metres and the marathon.

We’ll keep setting records, he declared. “Anything is possible as long as we are in good health. I’m still developing because I’m young. I think I can improve much more. Michael Githae of Kenya won the bronze medal after finishing more than two minutes behind the victor.

The excitement was even greater for Githae, who in December of last year won the last Fukuoka Marathon despite being late to the squad.

Despite the late call-up, he claimed, “I was still mentally prepared.” “I overcame a lot of obstacles. It was an extremely challenging course. One of my career’s best accomplishments is this. Longtime leader Liam Adams of Australia put in a heroic effort to try to give his nation its third consecutive victory in the race but was forced to settle for fourth.

Stenson triumphs. In the women’s event, 34-year-old Stenson finished 29 seconds ahead of Kenyan Margaret Mariuki. Her timing was 2:27.31.

Helalia Johannes, the defending champion from Namibia, ran a stunning 41 metres to win bronze.

With two kilometres to go, Stenson pulled off her dark spectacles as she surged to victory.

Before going to get her son Billy, she waited at the finish line to embrace her teammates, including 45-year-old Sinead Diver, the oldest competitor in the Birmingham athletics tournament and the fifth-place finisher.

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