Winnie Nanyondo And Peruth

Uganda’s Middle distance runner Winnie Nanyondo will be targeting a place in the Women’s 1500m final.

Nanyondo clocked 4:02.24 in Tokyo on Monday to safely progress into Wednesday’s semifinal.

Going into the semis, the first five in each of the two semis and the next two across both heats will storm the final due Friday at 3:50pm.

She is in a tough field alongside Sifan Hassan (Netherlands), Laura Muir (Great Britain), Lemlem Hailu (Ethiopia) and Hall Linden (Australia) among others.

She ran her seasonal best of 4:00.84 in Diamond League in Florence and that surely put her in great stead to make her sail through.

However, as the old age goes – the higher you go, the cooler it becomes – Nanyondo may need to break the four-minute barrier, like she did in Rabat in 2019, to have a chance of advancing forward.

Nanyondo earlier missed a place in the 800m final and will be hoping for better fortunes at the distance in which she is ranked seventh in the World.

Meanwhile Peruth Chemutai will be hoping to become the first Ugandan Woman to win an Olympics medal when she takes on track this Wednesday for the Women’s 3000m steeplechase final.

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Since inception, Uganda has collected nine medals at the Olympics games, but all those have been won by Men!

The Tokyo games have provided a good platform for Ugandan Women, and in fact, before Stellah Chesang pulled out, Uganda had qualified more Women than men at the games.

Winnie Nanyondo And Peruth

Nonetheless, with 12 women and as many men – it is the biggest number of women at the Olympics since Uganda’s first appearance in 1956 ( Melbourne, Australia).

There has been some good milestones to celebrate – First, Catherine Nanziri became the first female boxer to represent Uganda at the games.

Swimmer Kirabo Namutebi broke a National record in the 50m freestyle while Shida Leni became the first female Sprinter in recent memory.

Uganda has been blessed with strong Women athletes but none has been successful at the Olympics.

Winnie Nanyondo And Peruth

The renown Dorcus Inzikuru, Sarah Nambawa, Judith Ayaa, Mary Musani, Catherine Webombesa and Edith Nakiyingi among others have all bowed out without an Olympic medal to their long list of accolades.

Halima Nakaayi and Winnie Nanyondo failed to reach the 800m in Tokyo but the later still has a go at the 1500m.