Long-distance Joy Cheptoyek and Dan Kibet left Mbale Sports Club with their heads held high at the weekend.
Each felt they had capped a stellar 2025 after they closed the year competitively on home soil with victories at the 2025-2026 National Cross-country Championships on Saturday.
After years of set-backs in the senior women’s 10km event, this time Cheptoyek proved unstoppable and rocked the favourite’s tag billing to win a time of 33 minutes and 16 seconds.
‘It was a good challenge, I am so grateful,’ mixed with shyness, Prisons’ Athletics Club’s Cheptoyek told this paper after walking off the podium on a hot afternoon.
‘I think this is my best year. I feel so good. This year has been much better than last year,’ the 23-year-old said of her career. Perhaps, she could be right. Cheptoyek is based in the Asics camp in Iten, Kenya and trains with Stella Chesang and the prolific Kenyan Beatrice Chebet.
In September, she became the first female Ugandan to run the 5000 metres final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan. At the same championship, Cheptoyek became the first Ugandan again to make a top-eight finish in the women’s 10000 metres final via seventh.
Uganda Athletics for the first time staged the event in Mbale rather than Tororo, serving as a qualifier for the World Athletics Cross-country Championships due January 10, 2026 in Tallahassee, Florida – USA.
‘It was not bad. This one is somewhat hilly, compared to Tororo,’ Cheptoyek, who holds the 5000 metres, 5km and 10km national records, described the 2km circuit.
After 4km, she held a 20-metre lead over the rest of the field and she never looked back, finishing with a 26-second gap over runner-up Rispa Cherop of Prisons.
‘First lap, I tried to go. I said it’s too early. After 4km, I tried to move and realized that I was alone. Beatrice (Chebet) told me to go and work hard, try my best to qualify for the World Cross-country,’ she added.
Cherop posted 33:42 while UPDF’s Kereen Chemusto came third in 33:48. Like Cheptoyek, Kibet closed out the year with an impressive victory in the senior men’s 10km race.
Joshua Cheptegei’s understudy Kibet clocked a time of 28 minute and 57 seconds ahead of his training partner and defending champion Keneth Kiprop.
‘It was good,’ Kibet said with a smile. He led the field from the midway stage and broke away with half-a-kilometre to go. ‘I was ready to win, the course was good. The body is feeling good,’ he added.
The 21-year-old debuted at the World Championships in Tokyo. Kiprop meanwhile suffered a bad bruise at the back of his left heel.
‘The race was not bad but there were challenges. Someone spiked me after 3km and I ran with pain,’ he said after posting 29:06.
‘Without it, I think I would have won the race. My body was okay. Everything was going well.
It is good, he is my training partner so I love it,’ added the youngster who picked a 5000 metres bronze medal at last year’s World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru.
Kiprop beat Deogracius Musobo by a second and the trio together with Dolphine Chelimo and Emmanuel Kibet, who came fourth and fifth, all train together in Kapchorwa.
The top five finishers per event including the junior women’s 6km race won by Police’s Bentalin Yeko and the junior men’s 8km event won by Abraham Cherotich of Arua, made the grade for Florida.
The team will enter residential camp next month to prepare for the assignment which will be at the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee.
Uganda boasts of the senior men’s world cross-country title, won by Cheptegei in Aarhus, Denmark in 2019 before Jacob Kiplimo won it in Bathurst, Australia in 2023 and Belgrade, Serbia in 2024.
2025-2026 NATIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
U20 WOMEN’S 6KM
1 Bentalin Yeko (Police) 19:48
2 Felister Chekwemoi (Sebei College) 20:02
3 Nancy Chepkwurui (UPDF) 20:03
U20 MEN’S 8KM
1 Abraham Cherotich (Arua) 23:58
2 Jeremiah Kwemoi (Kipsiro Foundation) 24:01
3 Solomon Andiema (Kipsiro Foundation) 24:02
SENIOR WOMEN’S 10KM
1 Joy Cheptoyek (Prisons) 33:16
2 Rispa Cherop (Prisons) 33:42
3 Kereen Chemusto (UPDF) 33:48
SENIOR MEN’S 10KM
1 Dan Kibet (Prisons) 28:57
2 Keneth Kiprop (Police) 29:06
3 Deogracius Musobo (Police) 29:07
WOMEN’S 2KM
1 Brenda Chekwemoi (Prisons) 6:16
2 Sylivia Chelangat (Police) 6:19
3 Linda Chebet (Arua) 6:21
MEN’S 2KM
1 Daniel Comboni (Prisons) 5:16
2 Silas Chemutai (Prisons) 5:17
3 Domenic Krop (UWA) 5:18
MASTERS 4KM RACE
1 Cleophas Ongiro (UPDF) 13:55
2 David Cherop (Kapchorwa) 14:10
3 Justin Opio Okodi (UWA) 15:05