Cheptegei Voted World Athlete of the Month

World Athletics has voted Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei as the Athlete of the Month-August following his recent triumph in Monaco. The 23-year-old run a 5,000m race in 12:35.36 seconds, destroying the 12:37.35 that Ethiopian long-distance runner Bekele set in the Netherlands in 2004.

Following his victory last month, World Athletics has voted Cheptegei as the athlete of the Month. World Athletics tweeted saying, “We have a winner. Thanks to his phenomenal 5,000m world record, @Joshuacheptegei1 is August's moment of the month."

The Monaco record was a follow-up on his new 10km world record previously held by Leonard Patrick Komon of Kenya, which he improved by six seconds on the road with a time of 26 minutes and 38 seconds.

Cheptegei responded saying that he was very honoured to be named the athlete of the month by World Athletics.

“So honoured to be named as the winner for @worldathletics moment of month. Thanks to you all for the Retweets that enabled me win this deserved recognition for the month of August,” he tweeted.