Ugandan star runner Stephen Kiprotich has set his sights on winning a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, after missing out four years ago.
Kiprotich opted out of the Games in Scotland in 2014, where 10,000m runner Moses Kipsiro won Uganda's only gold medal, but is determined to add marathon gold to his collection in April on the Gold Coast.
"I have started preparing ahead of the Commonwealth Games because it is one of the medals I want to win for myself and my country," Kiprotich, who finished second in the Fukouka Marathon in December, told KweséESPN on Wednesday.
The officer in the Uganda Prisons Services is eager to begin the season on a high, starting with the PWN Egmond Half Marathon slated for 14 January in the Netherlands.
"The Half Marathon race will help to improve on speed," he reasoned.
Kiprotich, who won gold at the 2012 London Olympics, together with Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei, the 10 000m silver medalist at the 2017 IAAF World Championships, will be Uganda's medal hopefuls Down Under.
Dominic Otuchet, president of the country's athletics federation, told KweséESPN that he is confident Uganda's top athletes will all be part of the team this time.
"We have spoken to the top athletes, including Kiprotich, and insisted they must make the team for the Commonwealth so that Team Uganda can have a strong squad," Otuchet said.
The Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) also confirmed that Uganda will enter athletes in swimming, boxing, badminton, shooting, table tennis, track and field events, netball, and rugby 7s.