By Leilah Bbaale
Middle distance runner Winnie Nanyondo has completed her 2022 world athletics with an 8th position finish in the finals of 1500m on a Wednesday morning.
She posted 4:01.98 minutes falling to Kenya’s superstar Faith Kipyegon who won the race in 3:52.96 while Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay came second in 3:54.52 in a final held at the Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, United States of America. For the eighth position finish, Nanyondo wins USD 5,000.
From the first minute, the race was dominated by Ethiopia’s Tsegay and Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon. After the first 400 minutes, there was already a gap of close to 30 metres between the leading pack and the last pack until Kenya’s Kipyegon who spent most of the time in the second position behind Tsegay ignited the sprints in the lap and overtook Ethiopia in style and consequently grabbed gold.
Nanyondo 28, whose personal best time over the distance stands at 3:59.56 which she set in 2019 went to the championship ranked 9th overall, while her season-best time is 4:00.25 minutes which was posted in Oregon in May, this year.
Unlike the last edition of the games (2019) in Doha where she competed in the 800m and 1500, here Nanyondo only appear on the 1500 start list. She will now switch focus to the 2022 Birmingham commonwealth games.
But before her race, sprinter Tarsis Orogot produced braved a strong field to finish third in heat 4 over the 200m race and consequently grabbed a slot in the semifinals of the distance.
In a highly competitive race, Orogot who was making his debut in the championships managed to clock 20.44 seconds behind Alexander who won the race in 20.01 seconds while USA’s Kenneth Bednarek came second in 20.35 seconds
Orogot who is the first male sprinter to race for Uganda since 1997 at the championship since Davis Kamoga competed in 400m in Athens, will now wait for Wednesday morning to see whether he qualifies for the final.
He will have to finish in the first two positions or else use the next fastest two positions across the two semifinals if he is to qualify for the final, as per the qualifying format.
