by Justin Lagat
Joshua Cheptegai wins gold in 5000m! photo by Orangepictures.NL
This is an interesting piece. Justin Lagat lets us appreciate how close the Kenyan and Ugandan people are, and how much they share in the success of each country. I like that.
Tweet from Ugandan president:
Kongoi werin’yu @joshuacheptege1. To Kiplimo and Chelimo, we have all won. pic.twitter.com/Nwqc9FG4G7
— Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) August 6, 2021
After the great performances that Ugandan runners began to exhibit from the first day of athletics at the Tokyo Games, with Cheptegei and Kiplimo winning a silver and a bronze medal in the men’s 10,000m final, to the time when Peruth Chemutai won the gold medal in the women’s 3000m steeplechase final, some Kenyan fans have been celebrating them and even drawing a map of the two countries as one; at least until after the Olympic Games are over.
“A medal to Uganda is a medal to us,” posted one of the Kenyan fans on social media.
The majority of the names making headlines from the Ugandan team are from the Kalenjin community whose majority live in Kenya with a few of them living across the border to Uganda and others in neighboring Tanzania.
This may have captured the interest and the attention of the Ugandan president who took to his Twitter handle and congratulated Joshua Cheptegei after winning the men’s 5000m final, in Kalenjin language.
“Kongoi werin’yu, Joshua Cheptegei. To Kiplimo and chelimo, we have all won,” the Ugandan president wrote. The word, “Kongoi werin’yu” means “Thank you, my son.”
Both Kenya and Uganda currently have two gold medals each at the athletics medal table. To a fan who feels that a medal to Uganda equals a medal to Kenya, it could mean that they are currently placed second behind the USA.
