Orogot, Leonard Chemutai make their Olympics debuts in Paris

Monday August 5

Tarsis Orogot 200m

Leonard Chemutai 3000m steeplechase Heat-2

Since Davis Kamoga’s heroics that saw him bag a bronze in the 400m final during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta no Ugandan sprinter has come close to matching that feat.

It is like he passed on the baton to the long-distance athletics that have pushed Uganda’s medal tally at the quadrennial games to 12 including Joshua Cheptegei’s gold in Paris on Friday.

There has also been no deliberate effort from the Uganda Athletics Federation in building on Kamoga's success. It has been a whole 28 years since Uganda last won an Olympic medal in the sprints. The focus has mainly been turned to long distance running with the Sebei region now the bedrock of long distance runners that are hoisting the Ugandan flag at major games.

Leonard Chemutai

But the emergency of Tarsis Gracious Orogot who makes his Olympic debut on Monday night might change the trajectory and cause a mindset change. Orogot enters the race with a season and personal best of 19.75 which is the best time in his heat.

Nigeria’s Onwuzurike Udodi Chudi came close with a personal best of 19.76 while Jamaica’s Andrew Hudson and Bahamas’ McCoy Wanya entered with personal bests of 19.87 and 19.93 respectively.

The 21-year-old Ugandan also has Czech Republic’s Tomas Nemejc, Dominion’s Jose Gonzalez, Brazil’s Renan Correa and Paraguay’s Cesar Almiron to contend with in heat-2 of six where the top three from each heat qualify for the final.

Also in action for Uganda on Monday night is Leonard Chemutai who will be competing in the men’s 3000m steeplechase competition alongside some of the big stars like Kenyan Amos Serem, German Karl Bebendorf, Tunisian Ahmed Jaziri, Ethiopian Wale Getnet, Algerian Bilal Tabti, Italy’s Yassin Bouih, Morrocan Soufianne El Bakkali, Spain’s Daniel Arce,

France’s Daru Nicolas-Marie and USA’s James Corriga in heat-2 of three with a total of 36 competitors.

The government of Uganda through the NCS and UOC facilitated Team Uganda to the games with additional support from the UOC, Plascon and Sanlam Insurance.