Uganda’s golden duo of Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo are not part of Uganda’s long list to this year’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games in Scotland, this website can reliably reveal.
Cheptegei and Kiplimo announced their transition from track and field to the marathons in 2024 and 2025 respectively – which is the main reason for their omission from the list.
Acording to Dominic Otucet, the Uganda Athletics president, the void left by the two global record long distance runners will be a blessing in disguise for the upcoming young talents.
“I know also 15000m is not there but instead we have the mile which is close to it. Jacob and Joshua are not even in the long lift because marathon is not there. But we are going to depend on our upcoming athletes in 10,000 and 50000m where we have promising young men and women, then middle distance,” noted Otucet.
Athletics has been given 16 slots and Otucet believes that zeroing down to the number will be a huge task.
“At first when they asked for a long list, I submitted 110 athletes of which 49 are women. But we reduced the number to 28 men and 15 women but now our list has 15 men and 12 women which totals to 27 and out of those we shall zero down to eight men and eight women.
“We have young athletes that have graduated to senior whom we fell will be good enough even to replace the big names. As Uganda athletes we shall still depend on middle and long distance for us to win medals in Glasgow,” added Otucet.
Herbert Chebet, Kenneth Kiprop, Dan Chibet among others are names looked as Cheptegei and Kiplimo replacements while veteran Peruth Chemtai is expected to lead the young blood. Chemutai who was unfortunate last time in Birmingham when she got an accident in huddles and settled for bronze is chasing gold in Glasgow.
Uganda won five medals from the 2022 Birmingham games with Teddy Nakimuli winning boxing bronze while Chemutai won bronze in the Women’s 3000m steeplechase. Victor Kiplangat won marathon gold as Jacob Kiplimo won gold in 10,000 and 5000metres.
The marathon, along with other road-based events like cycling, has been excluded from the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow to reportedly reduce costs, operational complexity, and public disruption.
