Africa-Press – Uganda. This is Peace Oroma’s preferred race – the 400m T13. Her coach James Ssenkungu thinks she’s better suited for it than the 100m she ran on Tuesday, failing to progress from her heat.
Oroma, a visually impaired athlete, returns to the National Stadium today hoping to extend her participation in the quadrennial Games.
Para-swimmer Husnah Kukandakwe, 14, impressed but didn’t make it further. Then, David Emong won bronze in the 1500m T46 race. That was his second medal after silver at the Rio 2016 Games. Yesterday, para-badminton player Ritah Asiimwe was no match for China’s Quixia Yang, the second seed in the SU5 category.
On her debut, Asiimwe, 35, 2-0 in the best-of-three group C round one match. Yang won 21-2 and 21-6. The silver lining lies in the journey the one-handed Asimwe has walked thus far. “I needed a voice, freedom, entertainment.”
She has found that ahead of her final two games this week. Now, if Oroma were to make it beyond her heat, it would be more than a triumph against adversity. “You can tell, this (the 400m) is her race,” her coach Ssenkungu says, confidently.
“Did you see how she started the 100m? You realise that by the time she warmed up, the race was done,” he offers his analysis. Most of it is true and Oroma, who was way-off in the first 70m in a race she clocked 13.17 seconds, knows it. “Going forward, I want to concentrate on the 400m. It suits me,” she says.
Her best time is one minute and 4.46 seconds. America’s Erin Kerkhoff, with a time of 58.23 seconds is the fastest in heat one as per the records.
The 25-year old, running at the Paralympics for the first time, must run a Personal Best (PB) to earn a glance of going further.
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