The sky is the limit for eight-year-old Ugandan rising athletics star Godwin Adongo
Sky the limit for Ugandan Adongo
JOHANNESBURG, November 18 (ANA) – Coming from a rich athletics bloodline, eight-year-old Ugandan girl Godwin Adongo may just be destined for greatness.
Ditching cartoons to watch Diamond League athletics meetings on television is not the norm for a young child, but that’s the case for Adongo.
On Saturdays and Sundays, she hits dirt tracks in the Ugandan city of Lira for one-hour drills, honing her skills as a runner.
“I started running when I was three year old,” says Adongo. “That’s when I first went to school.”
In 2018, she stunned crowds by her seemingly effortless conquering of the 1500m and 3000m events during the national school championships in Uganda. Her obvious gifts earned her the privilege of a dedicated group of professionals consisting of three coaches and a personal doctor, to monitor her progress.
“Godwin has a God-given talent,” says her father Patrick Okodi proudly. “When she joined primary one, she started to participate in school competitions and I noticed then that she had aptitude.”
It was quite easy for Okodi to pick up on her gifts as he might have been an athlete himself, had he shown a propensity for the sport.
After all, his father was John Akii Bua, the Ugandan legend whose record-breaking run to gold in the 400m hurdles in the 1972 Olympic Games made him a national hero. However, his gift seemed to have skipped a generation.
“Akii Bua was a loving father and he used to train us, his children, but we were not talented in athletics,” says Okodi.
Decades after his passing, Akii Bua remains a celebrated figure in Uganda. His family treasures his memory and legacy. Adongo is growing up with stories about her legendary grandfather and they are already inspiring her.
She also follows Kenya’s Hellen Obiri and Genzebe Dibaba from Ethiopia and hopes she can meet them one day.
“I want so much to talk to my role models Genzebe Dibaba and Hellen Obiri, I need their advice.” – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman
