"Let us run for a healthy lifestyle": Paris Olympics gold medallist Cheptegei

Joshua Cheptegei, who rewrote the Olympic record in the men's 10,000m event at the Paris Summer Games urged everyone to embrace running in order to live a healthy life. Uganda's Cheptege is set to feature in the Delhi Half Marathon. Ahead of the event which is set to kick off on Sunday from the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on October 20, Cheptegei sent a strong message about maintaining fitness through running.

"For me, as they say, to be fit is to be healthy. To attain a level of fitness you have to be able to run. Let us run for all our lives, let us run for the future, let's run to save lives and let us run for a healthy lifestyle. Let's make running a healthy lifestyle, a lifestyle that we can attain every day of our lives. If we can do that we can prevent so many lifestyle diseases. So I implore each and everybody let's embrace running because it is beneficial for the body," Cheptegei told ANI at the Delhi Half Marathon media event.

Cheptegei is one of the top stars to feature in the Delhi Half Marathon event. He will be keen to finish at the top after breaking the Olympic record in the 10,000m event with a timing of 26:43.14s.

He expressed his excitement about the upcoming race and added, "For me, I am really excited about this event because it is my last race for the year. Mostly excited because it is the seventh time I come to India and always when I come to India great things happen."

Even though it is a different format of race than what Cheptegei is used to, he is confident about the preparations he has made for this event.

"For me, the approach is really different. This will be my third half marathon. I am still new in the distance and I hope that the small training that I have been doing in terms of volume, I hope that it will help me. I am still learning the distance and I hope in the future I can be a more experienced half marathon and marathoner," he remarked.

The double Olympic gold medallist is set to face two-time 5000m World Champion Muktar Edris of Ethiopia. Interestingly, Edris recently defeated Cheptegei in a 10-mile race at Tilburg, which forced the Ugandan to take revenge on the Ethiopian runner in Delhi. All eyes will be on the duo as they add a new chapter in their intense rivalry. (ANI)