Marathoner Stephen Kiprotich says competing against Kenyans not easy

Stephen Kiprotich

Nairobi, Jan 18 (IANS)

Ugandan world and Olympic marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich said competing against Kenyans is not an easy task, and urged his fellow athletes to learn from their eastern neighbour. The Ugandan long-distance runner, who won gold at both the 2012 London Summer Olympics and the 2013 World Championships in Athletics, said he has always been inspired by Kenyan athletes, Xinhua reported.

"Ugandans cheered Dennis Kimetto as he broke Wilson Kipsang's world marathon record. They also cheered as Julius Yego hurled the javelin to the world and commonwealth gold amongst other achievements by Kenyans in 2014," Kiprotich said Friday evening during the 2014 Sports personality of the Year Awards (SOYA) ceremony in Nairobi.

During the event, Kenyan Caleb Mwangangi Ndiku was declared the country's overall 2014 sports personality of the year after an eventful season during which he won the Commonwealth, African and Continental Cup 5,000m titles.

"Ugandans enjoy competing against Kenyans because they have a lot to learn from them. I get pleasure from training with them and I will defend my world title in Beijing in August," Kiprotich told his audience.

Kiprotich, who was the international star guest of the occasion, described former marathon world record holder Paul Tergat as a living legend "whom I have learnt a lot from".