Olympic Gold medalist Peruth Chemutai has won a bronze medal in the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase during the ongoing commonwealth games.
Chemutai had a chance to bag a silver medal but a nasty fall while clearing one of the barriers jeopardized her race and ended up with a bronze medal, thanks to the pace she had set from the first lap of the race.
She finished third in nine minutes 23 seconds and 24 microseconds behind Kenya’s youngster Jackline Chepkoech who won the race in nine minutes, 15 seconds and 68 microseconds, while England’s Elizabeth Bird finished second in nine minutes 17 seconds and 79 microseconds.
On the track, Kenya’s Chepkoech and Chemutai took the lead from the first lap. After the first 400- meters, the two who were in the leading pack put almost close to a 100-metre distance between them and the rest of the competitors.
As the race unfolded, Chemutai who looked calm and composed on the night took the lead, but the Kenyan runner was just microseconds away and regained her position back before Chemutai overtook her again.
As the two were competing toe-to-toe, Chemutai’s unmatched style of jumping the waters and clearing barriers would earn her an extra advantage over the Kenyan whenever the pair approached a barrier and this pushed Chemutai at least a meter away from the Kenyan runner.
The competition between the pair continued to ignite as the rest of the athletes looked on from the back until the 600-meters when Peruth Chemutai fell while clearing one of the barriers which made her lose momentum and gave advantage to Chepkoech to get away with the Gold.
The fall affected Chemutai’s speed while running the last 400-meters and she continued to fade off towards the end of the race giving chance to England’s Elizabeth Bird who was a distant third to overtake her. The bronze becomes Uganda’s fourth medal at the games, three from athletics and one from boxing.
Meanwhile, sprinter Haron Adoli qualified for the men’s 400-metre final when he won the first semi-final heat in style posting a personal best time of 45.80. He beat competition from Kenya’s Boniface Otunga who came second while Jamaica’s Anthony Cox came third in 45.98.
The sprinter will now take on an 8-man field in the final slated for August 7, 2022, as he bids to add another medal to Uganda’s medal tally at the ongoing games.
Earlier, two female sprinters Shida Leni and Jacent Nyamahunge bowed out of the competitions when they failed to progress through to the finals of their respective races. Leni posted 53.77 to finish a distant eighth in the first semi-final of 400-metre while Nyamahunge only managed to finish 5th in semifinal two of the 200-metre
Netball
The national netball team, the She-Cranes completed their stay at the 2022 commonwealth games with a victory 54-48 against African giants South Africa.
The two teams were rubbing shoulders in the classification match to determine which team finishes 5th overall. Earlier Uganda had finished third in group B Behind New Zealand and England while South had also finished third in group A.
It was a replica of the last edition’s (2018) classification play-off match when Uganda still took on South Africa to determine which team finishes fifth. Back then, Uganda lost to South Africa 53-42 and finished sixth overall.