Nyakato’s talent is too loud for her silent world

Resilient. While in Primary school, Jennifer Nyakato lost her hearing sense. For many, that is the end, yet, she managed to pick herself up. PHOTO/COURTESY  

What you need to know:

  • Resilient. When Nyakato lost her hearing sense, many believed it was the end. Yet, in a twist, she has turned her world around, writes, Abdulnasser Tajudeen.

Jennifer Nyakato was this frisky young girl enjoying music, singing in church and chatting with friends. 
Until she was 13, all that was cut off after she lost her sense of hearing. 

“I no longer enjoy music or singing; I have no radio or hoofers except a TV set from which I only watch news and movies with subtitles. I live a silent life unlike before,” she recalls with nostalgia in a WhatsApp interview.

But all was not lost because 14 years later, despite her impairment, Nyakato is now a university graduate, and an internationally recognised runner, in fact an African champion.

Accidental run
Nyakato is a late developer, whose arrival on the track was somewhat accidental. She was in Senior Five at St John’s Secondary Nyabwina, Sheema District in 2014 when her classmate and group leader Osbert Tukwasiibwe asked her to run for Ghana House in the annual sports gala.

“I wasn’t interested in sports and I hadn’t competed in any sports event before,” she vividly remembers.
“But my house had no girls in the 800m and 1,500m and Osbert sent me to the starting line.
She first refused, “I didn’t believe in myself…but he insisted that I try. Eventually, I agreed and I was surprised to finish first out of nine participants in the 800m.”  

She got the confidence to try the 1,500m race and finished second, winning the ticket to represent her school at the district level.

“From then, I knew I had the talent and didn’t look back.”

The first half

Nyakato and her elder twin Jackline Nyangoma-Amooti were born on April 4, 1994 to Joseph Bagonza and Rose Musiime Bagonza in Fort Portal, Kabarole District.

They follow two girls and two boys, and are followed by triplets. Nyangoma is a midwife at Rwamwanja Health Centre in Kamwenge District.

Nyakato was 13, in Primary Six when she developed mumps. Within three days, her left ear lost hearing. Two weeks later, she recovered from mumps but both of her ears could not function.
“At first, my parents didn’t take it seriously, until they realised that I couldn’t go back to school because I couldn’t listen to a thing.”

At a clinic in Fort Portal medics couldn’t find out the cause, and referred her to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, where she was also referred to Mulago Hospital in 2007. Again, they could not identify the problem. Instead, the doctor advised her parents to take her to a special-needs school because she would never be able to hear again.
Nevertheless, “I spent two years on medication but without improvement.”

Eventually, her parents gave up on hospitals and looked for schools that admit children with disabilities. She joined Canon Apollo Demonstration Primary School in Fort Portal, where she completed her primary in 2009.

On your marks…
For six years, Nyakato attended St John’s SS, a centre for students with disabilities, where she met fellow students with hearing defects.

She joined Makerere University under the disability scheme where she earned a second-class upper Bachelor’s in Agribusiness Management in 2020.

Nyakato during one of her training sessions. PHOTO/JOHN BATANUDDE

At university she divided her time between nourishing her track career and academics. “I always finished top in both middle and long distances.”

She represented the university in national, regional and international events and was voted sportswoman of the year 2017/2018.

She has also excelled at the annual national disability sports galas in Busia, Gulu, Mbarara, which motivated her to train harder and compete with nondisabled athletes.

But it wasn’t as simple as that. Nyakato’s biggest challenge is a communication barrier.
“I struggle to communicate effectively with coaches, teammates and others in the sports world,” she says.
Even her parents did not learn sign language because she attended boarding schools throughout and would live with them between December and January.

“I lip-read my mother tongue (Rutooro) but when I fail they write,” she says.

“But my coach (Faustino Kiwa) always has a paper and a pen to write for me and is gradually learning sign language to ease communication with me and the other deaf athletes.”

She also decries discrimination. Being the only deaf female athlete at Makerere University, some officials were reluctant to select her for competitions abroad.

“But I proved them wrong by outcompeting the nondisabled athletes like at the All-Africa University Games in Ethiopia where I finished third in 800m and fifth in 1500m.”

Nyakato also won bronze in the 800m at the East Africa University Games in Dodoma, Tanzania in 2018, hence qualifying for the 2019 World University Games in Naples, Italy.

African champ
Nyakato was extremely excited on her trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, her first flight, ahead of the 2018 continental university games. They flew farther north to Mekelle University, the games venue.

“But I didn’t enjoy the food and I even got stomach-aches. I resorted to bread and fruits.”
Nyakato was also surprised by the strange Ethiopian timeline, the skies would be crystal clear by 4am.
Being the only female middle-distance runner on her team, every early morning she would run about three kilometres from the athletes’ village in the Ethiopian deserts, alone.

Finishing fifth in the 1,500m event didn’t deflate her hopes for glory in the 800m, her favourite race. She finished third, winning bronze as Ndejje University’s Docus Ajok took gold.

“I was so happy winning a medal at my first ever international competition; it motivated me to work harder and represent my university.”

The feeling was even greater because competing against athletes who can hear is a challenge for Nyakato, who has to first see others start and she follows because she can’t hear the whistle or the starting gun.

“In the 800m I’m always given Lane One, where I can clearly see my competitors start or the coach or any technical official stands in front of me to alert me by raising an arm.”
So her coach must ensure that the technical team considers her problem.

Nyakato also teamed up with sprinters from Ndejje, Kampala University to win gold for Team Uganda in the 4x400m relays.

Most do not understand sign language, so they opt to write for her. “But it’s not always that everyone has a paper or a pen. And I don’t have an interpreter during training and competition,” she says. PHOTO

Back home, Nyakato and company embarked on a hectic two-day bus trip to the East Africa University Games at the University of Dodoma in Tanzania.

“We used six university buses because we were many. Everyone was exhausted and by the time we reached Dodoma my legs were swollen and had joint pain but the coach took us to the field to shake off the fatigue.”
Nyakato won bronze in 800m but came fifth in 1,500m.

At the 2019 World University Games in Naples, Nyakato finished last in the 800m Heats but managed to run her personal best of 4:34:3 minutes in the 1,500m Heats.

Two months later, she was on the bus to Nairobi for the first Africa Deaf Athletics Championships.
She and her coach Kiwa arrived three days to her first international deaf athletics event. “I was happy to meet my fellow deaf athletes from across Africa and I made connections,” Nyakato recalls.

Her spirits were high. She had trained with her coach every morning and evening on the track and the road, plus three days of gym work every week to improve on her sprints.
“I was in shape and sure of a podium finish.”

And she got it. First, her impressive 2:08:3 minutes won gold in the 800m race, setting an African Record, just two seconds off the World Record, as Ethiopians took silver and bronze.
“I was so happy because I had worried about Kenyans and Ethiopians since it was my first time to face them but I believed in myself.”

She also won silver in the 1,500m, her first medal in that distance.
“These medals meant so much to me, my coach, my family and my country,” she says, claiming that it was her stellar runs that swayed the National Council of Sports to issue the Uganda Deaf Sports Federation a certificate of recognition.

Nyakato attributes her success to discipline, hard work, confidence and determination.
Longest trip, greatest moment

Like most athletes across the world, Nyakato rues Covid-19 that disrupted her preparations for the 2021 World Deaf Athletics Championships in Lublin, Poland.

For months she trained alone in Fort Portal, remotely following her coach’s training programme.
She returned to Kampala just three months to the event, but still she could not access Mandela National Stadium—Uganda’s only track facility, which had since become a Covid-19 treatment centre.

“So I trained on grass at Makerere and couldn’t go to the gym due to Covid-19 restrictions.”
Coach Kiwa would train her  in the morning and evening, daily but acquiring the visa was another disruption.
“We applied for visas in Nairobi because Poland has no embassy in Uganda. But they asked us to go to Nairobi, which was also expensive because we had to use air transport to avoid delays, with only eight days to travel to Poland.”

Aboard Qatar Airways, Nyakato and Coach Kiwa reached Doha in five hours. Another five-hour flight took them to Warsaw, Poland, before a bus dropped them in Lublin, the event’s city, in four hours.
“That’s the longest journey I have ever made.”

The Polish weather was also tough. “It was so cold and it rained almost morning to evening, even during the competition which affected my performance.”

She was disappointed finishing fourth in the 1,500m race, “But my coach encouraged me and prepared me for the 800m race. We changed the tactics and the plan worked.”

Nyakato ran 2:10.26 minutes, finishing between two Russians: winner Emilyevna Abubiakirova and Ekaterina Kudriavtseva, who took bronze.

“That silver is my biggest career achievement.”

Off the track
When Nyakato is not training, she either goes swimming or cycling in a safe place or visits friends, most of whom are hearing-impaired and use sign language.

Originally, she’s a Seventh-day Adventist, who must attend church on Saturdays but she prays on Sundays at Immanuel’s Church for Deaf, a Pentecostal church in Makerere-Kikoni, whose services are in sign language, with interpreters available for the minority that cannot sign.

“I also have the desire to be a mother and have a happy family and I get advances from men but I tell them I still need time to build my career before settling down for a serious relationship because rushing will fail my dreams,” she says.

Dreams
Nyakato’s idols are world champions Joshua Cheptegei, Halima Nakaayi, and colleague Winnie Nanyondo.
“They are my heroes, I have raced with them at Namboole and Halima has guided me at some point,” she says.

“They are university graduates but very successful athletes who have impacted their families and communities; that’s my dream too; I want to emulate them and through hard work and determination, it’s possible.”
Nyakato’s ultimate dream is to be the best in the world and also set the 800m World Record at the 2022 Deaflympics (Olympics for the deaf) in Brazil.

Completing her bachelor’s degree in January 2020 gave Nyakatdouble joy. First, “I felt great because many people thought that deaf students can’t succeed at university.”

She loves farming, and given funds, she wants to invest in agriculture in Kabarole.

Graduation also gave her freedom to improve her sports career, her prime target. “I’m now greatly improving because I have enough training time.”

Briefly 

Born: April 4, 1994
Honours:
Muk sportswoman of the year 2017/2018
Africa: 
* 2019 African 800m gold medallist  (Nairobi, Kenya)
* African Deaf Women’s Record 2:08:3 minutes (2019)
World:
* 2021 silver medallist at World Deaf Athletics championships (Lublin, Poland)