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Jacob Kiplimo is a Ugandan athlete who recently retained his World Cross Country Championships title in the senior men's category. With this victory, Kiplimo registered his name with some of the greatest athletes to defend their titles in the championships such as Kenenisa Bekele and Geoffrey Kamworor.
Kiplimo didn't have a bright start to the race with the likes of Chimdessa Debele and Gideon Rono taking major strides in the first 20 minutes of the event. However, come the penultimate lap of the race, Jacob Kiplimo turned up big time.
He comfortably reached the finishing line with a mark of 28:09, clinching his second consecutive gold at the championships. Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi and Kenya's Benson Kiplangat finished in the second and third positions respectively.
After his victory at the Championships, the Ugandan long-distance runner opened up about his thought process to the World Athletics:
"It actually feels more exciting to successfully defend my title than to win the first one. But it was also tougher. I came here expecting I could win again, but the field was really strong. The pace was fast, the guys kept pushing it and there was still a big group out in front. It wasn't until the final three kilometers that I felt I needed to move to the front."
With all this said, let's dive into some more details about the 23-year-old champion.
Jacob Kiplimo - All you need to know and his achievements
Kiplimo was born on November 14, 2000, in Uganda's Bukwo district. Interestingly, he has a younger brother, Oscar Chelimo, who is also a long-distance runner. As a member of the Sebei ethnic group of Uganda, Kiplimo took up the sport from a very young age. Furthermore, he was the youngest-ever Olympian in Uganda after he participated in the 2016 Olympics at the age of 15.
The Ugandan athlete has a decorated trophy cabinet, including an Olympic bronze (10,000m) that he won during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. As a junior athlete, Kiplimo won two World Junior Championship medals in 2018 (silver in 10000m) and 2016 (bronze in 10000m). Additionally, he has won Commonwealth golds in the 500m and 1000m disciplines and three golds in the World Cross Country Championships. He also clinched a bronze medal in the World Athletics Championships 2022.
To top it all off, he is also a world record holder in the half-marathon, which he set on November 2022 in Lisbon. The Bukwo native is also Uganda's record-holder in the 3000m discipline.
