Olympics: Athletes Otim, Obura mourned
Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is seen on a live TV broadcast in Tokyo’s Shinjuku area on June 17, 2021, after Japan announced that a virus state of emergency in Tokyo and several other regions will be lifted on June 20, just over a month before the Olympics. Joel Otim featured for Uganda at the 1992 Olympic Games. PHOTO/AFP
What you need to know:
- He was really quick, a mainstay of the fastest group of sprinters in Ugandan history who represented the country in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
The athletics fraternity in Uganda is in a sombre mood after the passing on of former sprinter Joel Otim. Otim, who represented Uganda at the 1992 Olympic Games, died on Wednesday after succumbing to the coronavirus.
He is remembered to have raced in Heat 8 of the 100m at the Games in Barcelona, Spain alongside the great Jamaican-born Canadian Ben Johnson. “That was the highlight of his career,” Mark Ssali, a former Sport Editor at Daily Monitor, described Otim’s appearance at the Olympics.
Ssali, also a board member of National Council of Sports, and Otim both went to St Mary’s College Kisubi (Smack).
“He was really quick, a mainstay of the fastest group of sprinters in Ugandan history who represented the country in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s,” he eulogized.
He thrived during the time of the country’s best generation of sprinters comprising Moses Musonge, Edward Bitoga, Robert Ssebale, Andrew Olweny and Francis Ogola
Musonge was his best friend throughout, the two always being roommates in camp and at international competitions, and Otim was best man to Musonge at the latter’s wedding in 2002, Ssali recalls.
Otim was set to turn 50 on July 2. He had been serving as vice-president of the Uganda Olympians Association (UOA) since its inception in 2014.
“He was a humble fellow and humorous at the same time. He was a good story-teller,” said Ganzi Mugula, the UOA president.
But the dark cloud continues to hover over the sport after another former athlete Sev Obura died on Thursday.
He was a long and high jumper and served with the late Frank Nyangweso at Uganda Olympic Committee. He did compete at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia and worked for a long spell at Bank of Uganda.eam.
