{"id":15253,"date":"2021-08-05T14:56:23","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T14:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=15253"},"modified":"2021-08-05T13:01:32","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T13:01:32","slug":"steeplechase-smiles-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again","title":{"rendered":"Steeplechase smiles again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Sixteen years ago, Dorcus Inzikuru ended Uganda\u2019s wait for an athletics world title at the World Championships in Helsinki \u2013 Finland by winning gold in the inaugural women\u2019s 3000m steeplechase race. Inzikuru became a national obsession \u2013 with her name becoming normal parlance for anything to do with running. There was another world title in 2019 with Halimah Nakaayi at the Doha World Championships but there has always been an anxious and insatiable wait for a women\u2019s Olympic medal.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, at the ongoing Tokyo Olympic Games, steeplechase blessings struck the Pearl again as Peruth Chemutai tore apart the field in the last lap to win the country\u2019s first gold at the 2020 Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas she won?\u201d Inzikuru enthusiastically quizzed as soon as this reporter informed her that he was calling to talk about Chemutai. The former world champion clearly missed the event apparently \u201ccaught up in a meeting\u201d for her Inzikuru Legacy Foundation but had since passed on her blessing. \u201cThat is very good because Peruth has great technique and a bright future. Congratulations to her and the nation. We should continue to support the team and pray for them because they can bring more medals in the next few days,\u201d she added. Legacy runIt was not just the first gold at the ongoing Games. Chemutai became the first Ugandan woman, not just in the athletics discipline, to medal since the country started taking female participants to these Games in 1964 with Irene Muyanga (100m and 200m) and Mary Musani (80m hurdles).<\/p>\n

Uganda first took female athletes to Tokyo 1964 and it has taken for the Games to return to the Japanese capital \u2013 56 years later \u2013 for them to earn their first medal. And what a medal to start with! In between, Ugandan women have kept widening their scope and trying to change their luck with Los Angeles 1984 presenting the first entry for middle distance entry in Evelyn Adiru. There have also been attempts to cast the net wider to other sports, albeit those with slimmer or no medal chances, starting with; table tennis\u2019 Mary Musoke (Barcelona 1992), archery\u2019s Margaret Tumusiime and swimming\u2019s Supra Singhal (Sydney 2000). This year, Uganda also sent its first rower Kathleen Grace Noble and female boxer Catherine Nanziri.<\/p>\n

Back to athletics; Inzikuru had been to Athens 2004 before Helsinki but as a 5,000m runner and first entered the Olympics steeplechase at London 2012 \u2013 aged 30 and past her career peak.Chemutai, then 18, entered the Rio 2016 steeplechase but finished 7th in her heat (9:31.03) and therefore did not make the semis. However, five years in a long time as the 22-year-old showed by clocking a new national record 9:01.45 en route to winning gold.\u201cI am also very happy that the medal came from steeplechase because, unlike other races, it has not attracted many women yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow things can change. But we will need coaches to encourage athletes to take it on as many fear it because it has a lot of injuries.\u201cWe shall also need the government to increase the budget to identify talent at the grassroots,\u201d Inzikuru, who has worked with coaches like Benjamin Njia to train athletes at UPDF, Police, Prisons and Uganda Wildlife Authority, added.<\/p>\n

TIMELINE TO OUR FIRST \u2018FEMALE\u2019 OLYMPIC MEDALAugust 2021: Chemutai becomes first Ugandan woman to win a medal at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

July 2021: Uganda widens scope with Kathleen Noble and Catherine Nanziri becoming first rower and female boxer respectively to take part in the Olympics.<\/p>\n

2016: Chemutai competes in first steeplechase run at the Olympics.<\/p>\n

2016: Juliet Chekwel becomes Uganda\u2019s first female participant in the Olympic 10,000m.<\/p>\n

2012: Inzikuru enters Olympic steeplechase for the first time.<\/p>\n

2012: Jane Suuto was also first female marathoner at Olympics.<\/p>\n

2004: Inzikuru becomes first female long-distance runner (5000m) at the Olympics<\/p>\n

2000: Uganda widens scope with participants in archery (Margaret Tumusiime) and swimming (Supra Singhal)<\/p>\n

1992: Uganda delves further than athletics with table tennis entrant Mary Musoke<\/p>\n

1984: Uganda debuts into Olympics middle distance athletics with Evelyn Adiru<\/p>\n

1964: Uganda sends first female athletes Irene Muyanga and Mary Musani to Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Sixteen years ago, Dorcus Inzikuru ended Uganda\u2019s wait for an athletics world title at the World Championships in Helsinki \u2013 Finland by winning gold in the inaugural women\u2019s 3000m steeplechase race. Inzikuru became a national obsession \u2013 with her name becoming normal parlance for anything to do with running. There was another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-15253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nSteeplechase smiles again - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sixteen years ago, Dorcus Inzikuru ended Uganda\u2019s wait for an athletics world title at the World Championships in Helsin ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Steeplechase smiles again\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sixteen years ago, Dorcus Inzikuru ended Uganda\u2019s wait for an athletics world title at the World Championships in Helsin ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-05T14:56:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/08\/img-610be118e1783.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Steeplechase smiles again\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-05T14:56:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again\"},\"wordCount\":668,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/08\/img-610be118e1783.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/steeplechase-smiles-again\",\"name\":\"Steeplechase smiles again - 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