To stay focused: Disconnect from social media suggests Uganda’s Olympic and World champion Joshua Cheptegei

Uganda's 28-year-old multiple Olympic Games medalist in distance track races Joshua Cheptegei disconnected himself from social media platforms in the build-up to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games held between July 26 to August 11 in France.

"To stay focused for the Olympic Games I preferred not to use a smartphone for chatting or posting pictures on social media platforms," the Olympic champion revealed. "Social media platforms are major distractions."

The world 5,000m and 10,000m record holder ran a blistering last lap to win men's 10,000m gold at the Paris Olympic Games with a games record time of 26:43.14 seconds.

The Olympic champion said he didn't connect with friends or relatives for nearly three long months to focus on a good performance at the Olympic Games in Paris.

After winning gold in the men's 10,000m race at the Olympic Games, he pulled out of the 5,000m preliminary round citing fatigue.

Uganda's celebrated track runner will be amongst several elite international runners here in the Capital to compete at the 2024 edition of Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon scheduled for Sunday.

The prize money 21km event will start and finish at Delhi's iconic Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on October 20.

Cheptegei will be competing on Indian soil for the second time. His previous tour was way back in 2014 when he finished second at Bengaluru's 10km. "My tour to India was very successful. It was my first international race outside Uganda," the Olympic and World champion said.

Cheptegei, who is making the transition from track to road racing, was hopeful of another good outing on Sunday on the streets of Delhi. "I want to test my endurance on Sunday at the Delhi half marathon," Cheptegei added. "I want to do my best. Good performance here in Delhi will be a stepping stone for the 2025 season."

Cheptegei's team management said he was in the process of building the endurance required to sustain good speed over long-distance road races, including marathons.

Jos Hermens, former Netherlands distance runner and CEO of Global Communication has several world-class athletes, including Cheptegei under its banner, said the main goal is to prepare him to excel in marathon events in future. "He (Cheptegei) should be running close to two hours for a marathon in near future," Hermens told Mykhel.

The world marathon record of 2:00:35 was set by Kenya's late Kelvin Kiptum in 2023.

Cheptegei's marathon debut at the 2023 Valencia Marathon didn't go on expected lines. His team management had planned an estimated split time of 62 minutes for the first 21km and 60 minutes for the second half of the marathon race. Cheptegei drastically slowed down in the second half of the race and eventually finished 37th with a time of 2:08:59.

"He (Cheptegei) is learning and needs to gradually build up endurance to run a good marathon in future, " Hermans added.