Huge gaps in U-20 but Chesang and Orogot offer hope

By the time the 18th World Athletics Under 20 Championships started in Nairobi, Kenya, Uganda was still in party mode after collecting four medals in Tokyo.

Few considered the teenagers’ show worth a watch and so 10 runners, including a lone sprinter Tarsis Orogot, descended on the Kasarani Stadium without much attention but with dreams of making their country proud.

Saviour Chesang
This marked the biggest athletics championship to ever be staged in Africa but with several coronavirus protocols which yielded more 5000 LAMP tests, over 4000 PCR tests and almost 10,000 antigen tests. This was also World Athletics’ first major global track and field event since the pandemic.

After five days of action in a controlled environment due to the Covid-19 restrictions, Uganda was one of the 36 countries that bagged silverware – a bronze coming from Prisca Chesang’s spike in the 5000m final on the championship’s last day – on August 22.

The 18-year-old actually needed to wait for another hour to have Uganda’s 14th medal in the championship’s history confirmed. She had been disqualified along with second-place finisher Ethiopian Melknat Wudu as both had allegedly stepped out of the track.
However, the two East African nations appealed, the medals later reinstated.

Should have been more
Team Uganda coaches Charles Mukiibi and Moses Asonya feel they could have returned with more medals. Three days earlier, Chesang had missed the podium in fourth place over the 3000m final while on the penultimate day of the championship, Orogot painfully settled for fourth place in the 200m final.

He missed the podium by 0.09 seconds when he posted a time of 20.57 seconds behind South African Sinesipho Dambile, who posted 20.48 for bronze.

On a back of a rather stellar year, the youngster had broken Moses Mila’s 23-year-old national record (NR) over the half-a-lap race with a quality 20.37 seconds in the semi-final Heat 1 a day prior.

A medal for Orogot in Nairobi, where he was Uganda’s first sprinter at the World U20 do since the Grosseto 2004 edition in Italy, would have presented greater power to change the story of sprints in this country.

This country’s sweet athletics stories are highlighted by John Akii-Bua’s 400m hurdles gold from the 1972 Olympics, Davis Kamoga’s 1996 Olympic bronze and 1997 world silver medal, both over the 400m.
Unlike in the ‘70s, ‘80s and the ‘90s, sprints are in the shadow of the long-distance running today.

Uganda got sprinters
If anything, Orogot provided a perfect reminder of how much talent for the 100m, 200m, 400m, hurdles or relay is out there.

The biggest undoing for most is the infrastructural, technical and financial support. And the song about Uganda’s shortage in sprints and field events’ coaching quality returns to the table.
Hailing from Soroti, Orogot has had to ditch home for neighbouring Kenya to improve his performance. 

Notwithstanding great support from his parents, he is tutored by Kenyan coaches Denis Mwanzo and Perpe Mbutu and Performance Kenya for physio.

But Orogot, who definitely must perfect the reaction after the gun as well as improve on his start to get better, has big dreams. “I will be the greatest,” he posted after missing the medal.

To-date, many sprinters in the country struggle to find access to tartan. Orogot teased a tweep about when he was told to improve his start to races. “True! Naye (loosely translated as ‘but’) from where? The stadium is now a hospital,” he said of the Namboole stadium.

Scholarships on offer
Building a sprinter is relatively expensive. Many managements such as Pace, Global Sports Communication or Rosa Associati all invest in long-distance runners here rather than sprinters.

Yet these groups have sprinters from elsewhere. For example, Ricky Simms of Pace had both three-time Commonwealth champion Moses Kipsiro and sprint legend Jamaican Usain Bolt under his belt.

So many other Ugandan sprinters may need to find higher platforms to rise up. And yes, Orogot now has offers for sponsorship and to go furnish his craft with scholarships on table in the US.

Jamaican Observer writer Dwayne Richards – a brother former sprinter Sanya Richards – whom I met in Nairobi is willing to take on more teenage sprinters on scholarships to Kingston but does the current system allow such bonds?
Or if it concurs, does it address the big problems sprints face in Uganda? Therein lies the big question.

The World Championships in Oregon, US, next July could be Orogot’s biggest test ever. Then Birmingham Commonwealth Games could even offer the man who holds both 100m and 200m NRs a soft landing in the senior ranks.

Besides Orogot, Chesang, who made an Olympic debut in the 5000m Heats in Tokyo aged 17, has a brighter future too. To contextualise that, all Uganda’s medallists at the Tokyo Games scooped medals in the recent editions of the World Athletics U20; Joshua Cheptegei won 10000m gold at the Oregon 2014 edition.

Jacob Kiplimo won bronze at the Bydgoszcz 2016 stage before winning silver at the Tampere 2018 edition, both over the 10000m, where Peruth Chemutai won 3000m steeplechase silver.

While Orogot is advancing to the senior ranks, all the other nine participants in Nairobi are still eligible (born after January 1, 2003) to compete at next year’s World U20 edition in Cali, Colombia.

The lesser experienced lot of steeplechasers Elphas Toroitich and Leonard Chemutai, 1500m runner Peter Maru, Dismas Yeko and Dan Kibet in the 3000m as well as Rodgers Kibet and Martin Kiprotich over the 5000m have a chance and could be potential medallists in Cali.

Zhoya next big thing
Besides, the Nairobi show unearthed and raised many other future stars as evidenced by four world U20 records, 15 championship records, 11 continental U20 records, 68 national U20 records and 10 national senior records.

Sasha Zhoya, who is born to a French mother and Zimbabwean father and raised in Australia, is the biggest name to watch. He chose to represent France and having set two world U20 records of 12.93 in the semi-final and 12.72 for gold 110m hurdles gold, the man with yellow hair will be a big name at the Paris 2024 Games.

Swedish girl Maja Åskag won both long jump and triple jump gold medals and if anything, she already has compatriot pole vault world holder Armand Duplantis for inspiration.

Whereas sprint powerhouse USA and Great Britain weren’t present in Nairobi, 100m champion and 200m silver medallist Letsile Tebogo from Botswana is another future star.
The Clayton twin Tina and Tia who led Jamaica to the 4x100m relay gold in a championship record of 42.94 seconds can’t be overlooked. Tina, in particular, is the bigger name. She won 100m title too.

How they performed
Men’s 3000M Steeplecahse final
6.Elphas Toroitich    UGA    8:58.09
7.Leonard Chemutai    UGA    9:03.14
Women’s 5000M final
3.Prisca Chesang    UGA    16:21.78
10.Scarlett Chebet    UGA    17:36.26
Men’s 200M final
4.Tarsis Orogot    UGA    20.57
Men’s 1500M final
5.Peter Maru        UGA    3:41.45
Men’s 100M Semifinal 1
2.Tarsis Orogot    UGA    20.37
Women’s 3000M final
4.Prisca Chesang    UGA    9:03.44
Men’s 5000M final
7.Rodgers Kibet     UGA    13:57.97
9.Martin Kiprotich     UGA    14:15.62
Men’s 3000M final
6.Dismas Yeko         UGA    8:08.76
8.Dan Kibet         UGA    8:09.98

dkyeyune@ug.nationmedia.com