As everyday gets us closer to our Herculis EBS Meeting, we gave one of our main star Joshua Cheptegei a call. This conversation was an opportunity to talk to him about his quarantine and how it has modified his initial plans, his life and what he looks forward to in the future.
Matthieu: Where did you spend your quarantine?
Joshua: I spent it at home in Kapchorwa, Uganda.
M: What was it like?
J: It was both good and bad. It allowed me to spend more time with my family, but at the same time we are missing the sport so much.
M: How did you train?
J: We didn’t have a lot of cases (during the pandemic) in Uganda. About a month ago, the government relaxed the lockdown. At first, we had individual training but now we can train in small groups.
M: How did you feel during this quarantine?
J: I honestly really missed competing. It’s something I love doing, it’s in my blood.
M: You must be glad to come to Monaco in August then?
J: Absolutely. When I learned that Monaco was organizing a 5000m event, I was very enthusiastic. A really good feeling.
M: What’s your best memory here?
J: My best memory in Monaco is naturally the World Record. It was great for me to run on the Formula One circuit. It enjoyed it so much. The world record is a lifetime achievement, not everybody can do it.
M: How long are you in Uganda for? What’s the plan in the next couple of weeks?
J: The plan is to train here until the competitions start again.
M: How has Covid-19 changed the goals you had for this year?
J: Any professional athlete has goals. With everything happening after the Covid-19, you have to accept it, and try to find the solutions to make life still interesting. That’s why I’m focused on racing again.
M: What did you do during this period besides training?
J: I did some gardening at my grand-parents’ house. But mainly, I worked at my school in town. It’s a primary school, and I worked on some innovations there, like painting the walls.
M: Talking about school, you studied languages and literature at university.
J: Right.
M: Guide me through that process.
J: Before I made a living out of sport, I pursued a bachelor degree in Literature and Languages in Kampala. I wanted to complete it but I had to put a stop to it because of my professional career as a runner. But I hope I’ll finish it in the future.
M: You’re employed by the Uganda National Police? How does that program work?
J: In the Uganda Police Force, you have different people with different talents. You have the football specialists, you have people talented in music, and people like me, running specialists. Here, we try to use sport to bring people together. I believe sport can help reduce criminality.
In other countries, most people see the police as enemies. It doesn’t feel like that here. When they see sportsmen like us, they feel like we are not any different, we are humble people like them.
M: What are your earliest inspirations to become a champion? And when did you realize you could actually be world champion one day?
J: It happened in 2012 during my last year in high school. Stephen [Kiprotich] won the gold medal at the Olympics in London. Him winning the gold medal met my vision and reactivated my dream to become a champion. I have always wanted to become a champion but my parents wanted me to have a professional career in a different field. When Stephen won, I told myself that I needed to follow my head and not what my parents wanted me to do.
By 2013, I started to become good and rank #6 in local races. And then in 2014, I became Junior World Champion. That title gave me more motivation, and the belief that I could one day become Senior World Champion.
M: Did your parents support you ever since?
J: Absolutely. [laughs] They do support me.
M: What’s your next challenge?
J: I want to discover the limits, my limits. If you believe in something, anything is possible. Breaking a record was something really difficult, but when you know the right way, it’s not difficult anymore. So, the next challenge is to go chase one or two more World Records. I would be the happiest person in the world.
I wanna be Olympic Champion too, I could then follow the steps of my role model Stephen.
Matthieu FORTIN is a contributing writer for the Meeting Herculis EBS.
