The man behind Emong’s success

Unsung Hero. Abdallah takes the credit for turning Emong from just a participant to a fierce competitor. PHOTO BY ABDUL-NASSSER SSEMUGABI

KAMPALA. Without Norman Peart, perhaps the world would not have known Usain Bolt. At 15 years, Bolt was underperforming in class and on track. The principal of William Knibb High School invited Peart, then a tax official, who was once a runner at Knibb. Peart’s mentoring hand shaped Bolt from a struggling “long-foot boy” into the world’s fastest man.
Likewise, without Muhammad Abdallah, perhaps the world would not have known David Emong, the 2017 World Para Athletics gold medallist. Behold the similarities.
Like Peart returned to Knibb, his former school, to help Bolt, Abdallah had to be transferred to his former school Gombe Secondary School to help Emong.
“We had a very strong athletics camp at Bombo Secondary School and in 2005 I was transferred here,” Abdallah said in an interview at Gombe SS. “Luckily, Hajj (Ali) Mugagga, the headmaster was my OB at university and shared my vision.”
As Games Master, Abdallah was tasked to help promote athletics at Gombe SS and the following year, they finished fifth for the first time.
Famed for producing great science students every academic year, Gombe SS has also won countless trophies and medals in netball and handball. Their expansive bursary scheme has also bred good athletes like Scovia Ayikoru, Suzan Aneno (now at University of Connecticut, USA) and Josephine Joyce Lalam, who won gold at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Championship in Bahamas. But of all, Emong is by far their finest product.
The two-time All-Africa Para Games medallist is also a 2016 Paralympics silver medallist and now a world champion.
Emong, who broke his left arm in primary school, has a long list of “heroes” but “without that man Abdallah, maybe I would by now be a father in a remote village, unknown.” His father Tom Ibrahim Okello also speaks fondly of Abdallah.

Changing address
Like Peart took Bolt from Trelawny to Kingston, Abdallah lured Emong from Lira to Gombe in central Uganda to mentor him best.
“He was like a son, he spent the holidays at my home in Kyengera,” Abdallah traces the journey that begun in 2008.
“Being disabled, he wasn’t good at national level, but I have never seen a hardworking and disciplined person like Emong.”
At Gombe SS, sports prowess is no excuse for academic failure.
Abdallah says Emong was a slow learner in class, but his determination got him the passing grades. He had finished O’ Level at Akii-Bua SS, but he accepted to be demoted to Senior Three “because his grades were below our standards.”
While some students complain of the strict rules, Emong fitted in just perfect.
Abdallah remembers: “There was tough Director of Studies who was even feared by fellow teachers, but he befriended Emong, for his conduct.”
While Peart kept a keen eye on teenage Bolt in the distractive urban life of Kingston, Abdallah had no issues with a very pious and submissive Emong: regular in the school’s Christian fellowship, friendly to all. Athletes usually attract the opposite sex and Abdallah warns them against distractive attention. But Emong was already shy and preventive.
“It was very hard to find him offside, he stayed with me and my daughter at home, but I couldn’t fault him.” To date, Emong insists he will only marry after realising his career dreams.
Emong ran all those hills in Butambala district as part of his training. To enhance his endurance, he would go to Kapchorwa for high altitude training during holidays. Like Eldoret to Kenya, Kapchorwa is Uganda’s home of champions. “Emong was not expensive,” Abdallah says. “We only gave him posho, beans and transport.” That training enabled him outcompete the nondisabled athletes at district level, especially in cross-country.

Mentor’s masterstroke
But at national level Emong struggled against the nondisabled athletes.
“He couldn’t beat those runners from Kapchorwa,” says Abdallah, a coaches’ representative at Uganda Athletics Federation.
In 2010 Abdallah introduced Emong to the Paralympics Committee. He recalls Emong’s national debut: “There was no money but I convinced the headmaster to fund him for the qualifying event in Nairobi.” At the Great Lakes Para Athletics Championships, Emong won his first national medal, a bronze, and qualified for the 2011 All-Africa event in Maputo.
“He was so happy; he joined us in Nakuru where we had the Feasssa Games,” Abdallah recalls. “He held his flower until it dried.”
In 2011 Emong joined Kampala University for a bachelor’s in industrial art and design, but remained part of Gombe SS.
Hajj Mugagga, the headmaster, also treated Emong like his son. To return the favour, Abdallah recalls, Emong occasionally brought him gifts like chicken.

Emong not disabled scenario
“With his determination, I think he would be miles greater,” Abdallah says. “The North rarely produces long distance runners, but the few who surface are really good and also love academics.”
He cites 1994 World Junior champion Julius Achon, Tony Okello and Aneno, who all won scholarships at US universities.
After winning gold in London by finally beating his Algerian tormentor Samir Nouioua, Emong wants to break the 3:45: 55-minute world record in the T46 1500m. How possible is that? “It is very possible,” Abdallah says, assuredly, adding that if the record for the nondisabled is 3:26:00 minutes, Emong’s personal best being 3:58:36 minutes, he can make it in two years.
Emong’s nemesis Nouioua has repeatedly won gold in 800m and 1500m, but Abdallah advises his protégé to concentrate on 1500m. In the prospect of a professional manager, Abdallah advises him to be selective “We tell him to be very careful, some managers are exploitative.”
2017 has been very fruitful for Gombe SS in athletics: Lalam winning Commonwealth gold in javelin, Erick Layeng and Apenyo Bekele running at the U18 World Championships in Kenya.
Lalam, the undisputed discus and javelin champ leads others into the ongoing Feasssa Games in Gulu. Abdallah expects excellence and as long as the bursary scheme accommodates budding talents, his mentoring hand is always ready.

ABDALLAH AT A GLANCE

Full Name: Abdallah Muhammad
Claim To Fame:
David Emong’s mentor
Sporting History: Footballer
Designation:
Games Master, Gombe SS
Attended: St Mary’s College Kisubi,
Gombe SS and Islamic University
Education: Bachelor’s in Education
Sports Credentials:
IAAF Level Two coach
Practice: Lectured officiating and
coaching athletics in Africa.
Others: Coaches’ representative on the Uganda Athletics Federation