The 22-year-old barely put a foot wrong until his moment of confusion but he regathered himself and timed 2hr 10min 55sec, coming home with a broad grin on his face. "The people riding the motorcycles were confusing me," he said. "They told me to turn back.
But I still made it to the finish." There were no such navigational problems for Australia's Jessica Stenson, who turned two successive bronze medals into gold at last in the women's race. Despite his wrong turn, Kiplangat finished more than a minute and a half clear of Tanzania's 2017 world bronze medallist Alphonce Simbu. But for that slight detour he might have broken the longstanding Games record set by England's Ian Thompson (2:09.12), set in Christchurch in 1974.
"I believed when I reached 35 kilometres that I had some hope (of beating it)," he said, adding that making history for his country was ample consolation. "I believe Uganda is proud of me today. We have been waiting for this," he said.
Kiplangat, who was not selected in Uganda's team for the recent world championships in Eugene, Oregon, was gushing with confidence after his win. "I believe I shall be a great man like (Uganda's) Joshua Cheptegei and (Kenya's Eliud) Kipchoge," he said. Cheptegei is the Olympic 5,000m champion and two-time winner of the world 10,000m title while Kipchoge is a double Olympic champion in the marathon.
"We shall keep breaking records," he said. "As long as we are healthy, everything is possible. I'm still young and still growing.
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