Nakidde improves personal best in final Olympic qualifier

Uganda’s weightlifting captain Lydia Nakidde enhanced her personal best by an impressive four kilogrammes despite finishing ninth in the women’s 64kg category at the IWF World Cup in Phuket, Thailand.

Of the 12 lifters only Nakidde and Malta’s teenager Tenishia Thornton  got all their six lifts right.

Nakidde’s best score in snatch was 72kg; and in clean & jerk it was 92kg, both personal bests. That propelled her total to 164kg, 10 kilogrammes above her total at the IWF Grand Prix in Qatar in December, and four kilogrammes above her personal best ever, in Accra last month. 

Nakidde finished ninth in a race dominated by the North Korean pair of Sim Un Rim (258kg), Suk Ri (248kg) and Ukrainian Svitlana Samuliak (221kg). Thornton finished fifth with 201kg.

Nakidde, who was disappointed by missing out on a medal at the recent African Games in Accra, Ghana just weeks after winning bronze at the Africa Senior Championship in Ismailia, Egypt, must be proud of her performance that once more put her a place above Kenya’s Winny Langat, who totalled 151kg.

Now Nakidde alongside her Kisugu Unified Gym colleague Davis Niyoyita are praying that their final attempt at qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics counts.  

Niyoyita, weeks after bagging bronze and two silver medals at the African Games, with a total of 210kg in the Men’s 55kg, he managed 221kg in the 61kg category in Phuket. Uganda is yet to qualify a weightlifter for Paris 2024.