Peter Maru races in the 5000m heats at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (© Getty Images)
The name Peter Maru is yet to grip the global athletics audience, but the Ugandan prodigy dreams of a long and successful career in long-distance running.
He plans to launch his mission by winning the men’s 5000m title at the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium during the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 in Colombia from 1-6 August.
“My main target in Cali is position one,” Maru said, a day after his debut at the just-concluded World Athletics Championships Oregon22 in Eugene, USA.
During day seven of the championships, Maru finished 14th in his 5000m heat, running 13:47.65.
“The problem I got was fatigue,” he said. The 19-year-old landed in Eugene two days before his race after a 24-hour journey from home through Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Seattle.
“This was the longest trip in my life,” Maru added. He did not advance to the final in Oregon, but the trip to the west coast is a big part of his career growth.
“Here I ran the senior championships. That is more experience that I have got and going to Colombia, I will do better,” he said.
This season, Maru qualified for Cali in the 1500m after posting 3:45.65 in second place during the national trials at Namboole Stadium in Kampala on 19 March. He also beat the qualifying standard for 5000m after clocking 13:08.89 for second place during the Castiglione International Meeting in Grosseto, Italy, on 22 May.
Maru will make his second successive appearance at the U20 global showpiece, just like five of the 11 runners for Uganda. At the previous edition held at Kasarani Stadium in Kenya’s capital Nairobi last year, Maru earned a respectable fifth place finish in the 1500m final.
He has since opted to run the longest track race of the championships in Cali. “In the 5000m, I will run the finals,” he said, determined. “And I like the 5000m because I will come (back) with a medal.”
After Nairobi, Maru had hoped to continue running but with a scholarship in the USA. His plans changed after he was signed up by a management company and he was placed in the same training camp as world half marathon champion and record-holder Jacob Kiplimo.
“This year, I got a manager and you see the way I was performing,” he said of his season progress. “He has helped me with getting facilities, races in Europe and good programmes for training.”
There has been a shift in results. He began with a second-place finish at the Cursa dels Nassos 5km in Barcelona, Spain, on New Year’s Eve and is now the fourth-best 5000m runner on this season’s world U20 top list after posting a personal best time of 13:07.42 in eighth place during the Bislett Games Wanda Diamond League meeting in Oslo, Norway, on 16 June.
“I prepared a lot,” he said. “I do a lot of mileage, I have a lot of speed. My body is okay, so the problem (in Oregon) was fatigue only, but in Cali, I think everything will be okay.”
Maru comes from a poor background and he hopes that, by using his talent, he will have control of his future.
“I have this talent and I didn’t want to waste it so that in the future, it can help me. I pray to God that from next year, I will bring my family up,” added the third-born from a family of three boys and five girls.
His biggest inspiration is his senior training partner Kiplimo, who bagged bronze medals over the 10,000m finals at the Tokyo Olympics in Japan last August as well as at the World Championships in Oregon.
Coincidentally, Kiplimo won two of Uganda’s last three long-distance running medals at the World Athletics U20 Championships – 10,000m silver in Tampere in 2018 and bronze in Bydgoszcz in 2016.
Maru will now look to follow in his footsteps.
Darren Allan Kyeyune for World Athletics
Peter Maru – quick CV
Name: Peter Maru
Date of birth: 3 April 2003
Home district: Kween, eastern Uganda
Disciplines: 1500m, 5000m
PBs: 1500m - 3:40.10, 5000m - 13:07.42
Favourite race: 5000m
Role model: Jacob Kiplimo
Global inspiration: Mo Farah
Favourite food: Posho (maize flour) and milk
Favourite colour: White
Favourite holiday destination: Boston, USA
Uganda’s medal record at the World Athletics U20 Championships
Nairobi 2021: Prisca Chesang (5000m bronze)
Tampere 2018: Jacob Kiplimo (10,000m silver), Peruth Chemutai (3000m steeplechase silver)
Bydgoszcz 2016: Jacob Kiplimo (10,000m bronze)
Eugene 2014: Joshua Cheptegei (10,000m gold)
Moncton 2010: Jacob Araptany (3000m steeplechase bronze), Annet Negesa (800m bronze)
Bydgoszcz 2008: Benjamin Kiplagat (3000m steeplechase silver)
Beijing 2006: Abraham Chepkirwok (800m bronze)
Grosseto 2004: Boniface Kiprop (10,000m gold)
Santiago 2000: Dorcus Inzikuru (5000m gold)
Annecy 1998: Paskar Owor (800m bronze)
Lisbon 1994: Julius Achon (1500m gold)
Seoul 1992: Francis Ogola (400m bronze)
