Abraham Chepkirwok

Who is Abraham Chepkirwok?

Abraham Chepkirwok is an Ugandan middle distance runner who specializes in the 800 metres. He is the Ugandan record holder in this distance, with 1:43.72 minutes, achieved in July 2008 in Madrid. He is a World Junior Championships bronze medalist from 2006 and Olympic competitor from 2008.

He was born in Kapchorwa. By June 2006 he had run the 800 metres in 1:45.0 minutes, at a meet in Kampala. With this he was the season's world leader for juniors—athletes aged nineteen and less. With electronic timing his best time was 1:45.44 minutes, achieved in a meet in Heusden. He competed at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing, and won the bronze medal, having led the race halfway through but been outsprinted near the end by two Kenyan runners.

In the 2006–07 indoor season he ran the 800 metres in 1:46.91 minutes in Stuttgart. This was a Ugandan indoor record. He opened the outdoor season by winning the IAAF Grand Prix in Dakar. He also won the Grand Prix meet in Hengelo, and finished third at the Super Grand Prix meet in Doha, the Golden Spike Ostrava and the Bislett Games. Then, in July 2007 he achieved a new personal best time of 1:44.78 minutes at the Grand Prix meet in Athens. A fifth place at the All-Africa Games was followed by the entrance in the 2007 World Championships. Chepkirwok reached the final round, and in an unusually tight race, where all eight runners finished in the range of 1 minute 47 seconds, Chepkirwok finished fourth with 1:47.41. This was 0.02 seconds behind the bronze medalist, and 0.01 second ahead of the fifth placer. Rounding off the season, Chepkirwok finished seventh at the 2007 World Athletics Final.