Dorcus Inzikuru

Dorcus Inzikuru

SEX: Female

DOB: February 2, 1982 (Vurra Ezuku)

Race: 3000 m Steeplechase

2005 World Championships, Gold

2005 World Athletics Final, Gold

2006 Commonwealth Games, Gold

5000 m

2000 World Junior Championships, Gold

2002 African Games, Silver

2003 Afro-Asian Games, Bronze

Personal Best:

2000 m Steeplechase, 6:04.46

3000 m Steeplechase, 9:15.04

Inzikuru first hit the headlines in 1999 when she became the first Ugandan girl to win a world junior gold medal.

Her best moment, however, came five years later when she became the first woman to win gold in the steeplechase at the world athletics championships in Helsinki.

The 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, Finland were great for her.

Inzikuru ended Uganda’s 33-year wait for an athletics world title, winning the inaugural women’s 3000 m event, in a time of 9:18.24 (at the time, the sixth best performance ever at the time).

She earned $60,000 (sh148m) and promised to use the money to train more talent on top of building a house for herself.

John Akii-Bua , a gold medalist at the1972 Munich Olympics, had until then been the only Ugandan to have registered such a major success in athletics.

Inzikuru was later to prove that Helsinki was no fluke by also winning at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

She was, however, later to slump in form. But despite numerous challenges, she passionately battled to regain her form, an effort that paid off with an Olympic slot last a few days to the games.

Inzikuru’s qualification brings the number of athletes to the 2012 London Olympics to 16 with the track and field having the biggest number at 12.