Lalam hopes javelin bronze changes tide of field events

Sports men go through thick and thin to represent Uganda at regional, continental or international events.
Less is spoken and more is bottled about the thick unless the athlete delivers success.
Current Uganda Cranes’ skipper Denis Onyango cannot forget the paint-stinking hotel rooms before Uganda lost 4-1 to Niger away during the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Missed flights or misplaced luggage is part of the story. Uganda’s ever small delegations won’t attract much attention, copying up with the weather and meals away all punctuate athletes’ difficulties at Championships.
Some hardly move with upkeep or promises by administrators are not fulfilled.
For Josephine Lalam, her story is different. At 17, she made most of her debut at the Africa Senior Athletics Championships by winning an unexpected javelin bronze at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba, Nigeria.
“I am very happy to win this medal. This is fine but not all is well,” Lalam began to speak before Team Uganda left the stadium on August 4.
Lalam had surprised many by taking third place after her throw of 51.33 metres stood out of her six attempts in the eight-man earlier that day. It was Uganda’s first javelin medal since Justin Arop’s bronze at the 1990 edition in Cairo.
“The distance has not been good,” she said, voice lowering. For her age, one would think Lalam would be satisfied and probably, she could return to the Championships in two years’ time and aim for gold.

Coach woes
But no! The form four student at Gombe Secondary School knew she could have done better. “Yes I won but the problem is the coach,” she stated. Why the coach?
“I train alone and in school, I have no much time to train,” she said before stating her constant career problem.
“I have had no coach,” she says in a WhatsApp chat. By then, she had checked in back in her room at the team residence at Hotel Dela Nice in the town of the oil-rich Delta State.
Born on November 12, 2000, Lalam’s throwing talent was

nurtured back in her village Badmunu in Palwo sub-county, Agago district.
Her English and Social Studies’ teacher called Justin introduced her to the sport while in her primary four at Lacek Primary School.
“He called me one time to try to throw and we used a stick,” Lalam recalls her first encounter with javelin in 2006.
Some 12 years later, she has won several school championship events, a gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bahamas last year and now Africa Senior bronze.
But it is hard to imagine. “I do not own a javelin. During training at Namboole, I share with my friend Lucy (Aber),” Lalam narrates. A javelin costs about $61 (Shs230,000) and lucky enough at Championships, athletes are given javelins to use.
Aber, who had broken Annet Kabasindi’s national record of 51.82m to 53.80m during the Akii-Bua Memorial Championships, was sixth in Asaba with best throw of 49.39m.
Lalam’s career has been entirely down to her phone. “I train myself. I copy the things that I see in internet videos then I try and do them.”
Like Kenya’s Julius ‘Mr YouTube’ Yego, Lalam has done this for years but after stepping onto the podium in Asaba, she hopes things can change for better. “Now after this medal, I pray that someone out there sees me and gets me a coach. I think I can do better and win more medals. I have a talent that I only want to get better,” adds the fifth born from the family of seven.

Eyeing Worlds
Lalam’s eyes are on the Doha World Championships next year and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But the argument continues in the athletics fraternity whether Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) does enough for these events.
“UAF is focusing much on the long-distance but we used to perform well in sprints and field which have now been forgotten,” 1996 Olympic 400m bronze medallist Davis Kamoga argues.
“There is nothing deliberate that we see being done for sprints yet John Akii-Bua and my achievements back up our history.”
That has been the bother for sprint diehards and field event lovers in the country.
Lalam’s performance ended a nearly three-decade wait in javelin only provokes the conversation again.

AT A GLANCE

Born: November 12, 2000
Event: Javelin
School: Gombe SSS, Butambala District
Class: Senior Four
MAJOR EVENTS
2017 Commonwealth Youth Games: 1st (51.89m)
2018 Commonwealth Games: 8th (48.92m)
2018 Africa Senior Athletics Champs: 3rd (51.33m)

2018 AFRICA SENIOR ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
SELECTED RESULTS
WOMEN’S JAVELIN FINAL
1 Nwanaga Kelechi (NGR) 59.96m
2 Jo-Ane van Dyk (RSA) 53.72m
3 Josephine Lalam (UGA) 51.33m
6 Lucy Aber (UGA) 49.39m
LALAM THROWS: 51.33m, 48.98m, 48.59m, 44.37m, 46.58m, 48.60m

MEN’S 1500M FINAL
1 Elijah Manangoi (KEN) 3:35.20
2 Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN) 3:35.93
3 Ronald Musagala (UGA) 3:36.41
12 Rashid Etiau (UGA) 3:50.00
14 Geoffrey Rutto (UGA) 3:50.85

MEN’S 5000M FINAL
1 Edward Zakayo (KEN) 13:48.58
2 Getaneh Molla (ETH) 13:49.06
3 Yename Haileslassie (ERI) 13:49.58
8 Stephen Kissa (UGA) 13:59.90
14 Kevin Kibet (UGA) 14:17.45

WOMEN’S 3000M STEEPLECHASE FINAL
1 Beatrice Chepkoech (KEN) 8:58.88
2 Celliphine Chespol (KEN) 9:06.61
3 Weyeshet Ansa (ETH) 9:23.92
4 Peruth Chemutai (UGA) 9:27.03

WOMEN’S 800M FINAL
1 Caster Semenya (RSA) 1:56.06
2 Francine Niyonsaba (BUR) 1:57.97
3 Bayih Alemu (ETH) 1:58.86
4 Halima Nakaayi (UGA) 1:58.90
5 Winnie Nanyondo (UGA) 1:59.41

WOMEN’S 200M FINAL
Lou Marie Ta (CIV) 22:50
2 Bevina Abessolo (CMR) 23.36
3 Janet Amponsah (GHA) 23.38
7 Scovia Ayikoru (UGA) 23.66