Shida Leni: Uganda’s new athletics queen 29
At 23 years old, Shida Leni has been dreaming of becoming the fastest quarter mile athlete in Uganda for the last 20 years. Her training seems to be paying off now because she is currently the most aggressive female runner on the track in the 400m race.
She was a Commonwealth semifinalist in April but those performances were only small steps towards what she dreams to become: one of the best. At the national championships in Namboole in July, she ran 52.40 seconds in the heats, then returned in the afternoon and smashed her record by 25 seconds. This was followed by 52.10 second to obliterate her personal best. Leni has always been fast, but the difference now is that she is strong.
Off the race track, Leni is a jolly person with an easy laugh, many of her peers tease for calling chicken, ‘sicken’ and she simply laughs it off.
Building the engine
“Strength,” she says is her secret weapon now. “I have always had the speed, but I was never strong enough to use any of that speed.” Over the past five years, Leni under the coaching of Kevin and Sue O’Connor has increased her workout hours.
Future Perfect
In her primary school days at Arua Hill Primary School, Leni was confused about her career in sports. At school, she was a superb wing defender in netball but loved running and was good at it.
“My mother was unhappy with my running and always discouraged me, saying it was wastage of time,” she says. “But I have always had the feeling that I was meant to be a runner.”
After completing Primary Seven, she was offered a vacancy at Muni Girls but because her mother could not afford the schools fees, she instead went to Arua Public School where she was offered a bursary until high school.
Life changing experience
At that time she was running in the 200m, and 400m races, and doing long jump. Her talent blossomed, getting a place on the district team to the national championships in Namboole in 2011. It was a life changing race at Namboole when she faced Emilly Nanziri and Justine Bayigga, she finishing fifth. She opted for a bursary at Ndejje University tuning down Uganda Christian University (UCU) and Kampala University.
“When Ndejje approached me, I thought they were joking. Mummy allowed me to join but she was not sure someone would study for free at university.”
At Ndejje, where she graduated with a degree in Social Work And Social Administration, she was welcomed by Joyce Bako, who took her in as a sister. Later, she met Winnie Eficia, a tribe mate, who was in her second year at Ndejje. Both ladies introduced her to what she now calls family.
Bako introduced her to the O’Connors in 2013 while Eficia, took her to her brother’s home, Georges Asea-Aswa in Muyenga where she lives while in Kampala.
Her star continued to rise while at the university winning the 400m race during the East Africa University games in Nairobi with 54.1 seconds in 2012.
In August 2013, Kevin and Sue O’Connor began coaching her and hugely improved her 400m personal best in this five-year period to 52.12 seconds. Very early on in their coaching, the O’Connors decided that Leni should give up long jumping and concentrate on her running.
Leni broke the 10-year old national record by running 52.47 seconds at the national trial on February 24 2018. Since then she has broken it a further three times, most recently on Saturday July, 21 with 52.12 seconds at the second Tartan Burners Athletics Club (TBAC) Invitational Meeting at Mandela National Stadium.
Leni has been national champion since 2016 in 400m and is also the reigning national champion in 200m.
Running with coaches
O’Connor is a gregarious coach with a reputation for perfectionism, although he prefers to shun the limelight and allow his athletes’ performances speak for themselves. He specialises in track training and weight training, while his wife works on her drills and flexibility.
An important reason for her rapid improvement has been increased strength due to weight training at the Espace Gym, Silver Springs Hotel.
“They are very kind and like family to me,” says Leni. “Kevin and Sue have a way of finding your limits and pushing you to those limits in workouts. Earlier under their training, I would go home and lie in bed the rest of the day because I was too tired to move. Eventually, I was able to get stronger and the workouts didn’t take as much out of me.”
Outside the rigorous workouts, she is encouraged to take ownership of her career.
“They expect me to be a professional all the time by taking care of myself, eating healthy, without anyone really holding me accountable,” says Leni.
But when it comes to planning his athlete’s training and activities, O’Connor is fastidious.
“When I am going for any races he briefs me so early about the weather and even altitude, things I did not care so much about. There is a reason for everything and you just have to trust him.”
But in November last year until January when the O’Connors were away for holiday in the UK, Paul Okello took her through the paces and she is forever grateful.
Globetrotter
From having never travelled beyond her native Arua, Leni’s athletics success has taken her to 11 countries so far for competition namely; Kenya, Scotland, South Korea, Congo Brazzaville, Italy, Slovenia, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Chinese Taipei, Australia and Nigeria. She reveals that her first trip outside Uganda was socially challenging. Coming from such an impoverished background, Leni did not have enough pocket money to take care of herself. “On my first flight in 2014 to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, I refused to eat the brunch even if I was hungry thinking I would have to pay for it,” she recalls.
Balancing act
Leni, who is pursuing a Masters in Counselling Psychology at Bugema University, where she was the first to earn the privilege of a bursary, has to balance her academics and a training cycle which includes strength, endurance, speed and some runs while doing strength work in the gym three times a week on her non-workout days.
Having set her own terms with a new national record, she intends to lower her 400m best to sub 52 seconds and she believes with consistent training, it is possible.
Over the years, it’s not just her physical ability that has bloomed, but her racing brain. On July 21, 2018 when she set a new mark running 52.10 seconds, it was the fourth time she was beating her own record since February when she ran 52.47 seconds to break Justine Bayigga’s 10-year record of 52.48 seconds.
“It was so easy that I didn’t feel it only to be surprised that I had set a new record,” she says.
The university is considerate with her. For example, after breaking the national record at the TBAC event, she had to take morning and afternoon examinations at Bugema the following day.
Dream believer
Leni missed the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April with a 52.38 mark. She still regrets the missed opportunity. “I made some tactical errors even though I had a thigh injury which I believe kept me from placing higher,” she says. “I started challenging myself not minding about my opponents.” Right now, that approach is evident in Leni’s running. She aims at breaking the 52-second barrier for 400 metres and eyes competing in Europe in 2019 as well as qualifying for the 2019 World Champions in Doha and she hopes to crown her season next year with a place to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. “I would like my national record to stand longer but I’d like to win an Olympic gold medal and a world championship gold medal and God willing, I’d like to go for some world records as well.”
But whether she gets there or not, Leni will stay true to the dream she set when she started earning from running - of building a decent house for her mother. Beyond the glamour, though, lies a message that Leni aims to share.
She knows that message is more important than any record: “I am running to inspire the next generation no matter their background. It’s amazing how many doors sport can open for a girl child.”
