Annet Negesa: The spirited athlete

By James Bakama

 Annet Negesa has everything to make it to the women’s 800 meter final at the London Olympics.

At 20 years, that will be no mean achievement for an athlete who is only making her debut at the prestigious quadrennial event.

“London will be a great experience. I will strive to ensure that I make it to the last stage,” said the All Africa Games gold medalist.

Negesa is according to records of world athletics body IAAF, the 17th fastest woman this season. Her season’s best time of one minute 59.08 seconds was run on the IAAF circuit in Hengelo.

Negesa’s biggest asset is speed endurance. She should by this time have been running even faster hadn’t it been for a mix-up in her training program.

While on a European tour minus her coach, she decided to switch from speed work training to stamina oriented sessions- a change that had her slumping to 2:02:84 in Porto Novo.

Expecting a medal from Negesa in London would be asking for too much from the Kampala International University first year student.

She first hit international headlines in Moncton, Canada in 2010 when she won a bronze medal in the World Junior Athletics Championship.

She later proved that this was no fluke with gold medals in the 800 and 1500-meter at the Africa Junior Championship in Botswana.

She again looked set to win another double at the All Africa Games in Mozambique last year. Negesa who had easily won the 800m race pulled out of the 1500m final with a lap left. She claimed she had been spiked.