The only real failure in life is giving up.

And it is against this background that athlete Maureen Akiiki Banura endured all odds till she achieved her target of qualifying for the 2022 Commonwealth Games on Saturday.

Banura put up a deep fight, to beat teammate Emily Nanziri in the women's 400m at Mandela National Stadium, Namboole, during the sixth and final national athletics trials.

"I felt very happy and tears just started coming because I could not believe that I made it," Banura told New Vision Sport.

Maureen Banura crosses the finish line in the 400m race. Photo by Johnson Were

"It is my first time to go for the Commonwealth Games, and my focus is more training to bring a medal home," the Police Athletics Club athlete added.

Banura is one of the very few athletes that have competed in all six Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) trials and she has had steady progress that eventually bore fruit by hitting a personal best time of 54.66, well inside the required qualifying time of 54.74.

Nanziri, her Police teammate, came in second with a season-best time of 55.13 but could not make it.

Meanwhile, Pius Adome re-stated his qualification for the Commonwealth Games in the 200m by posting a time of 21.21 of the required 21.24.

In the U20 men’s 3000m, five including Denis Kiplangat (8:04.70), Hosea Kiprop (8:09.19), Kenneth Kiprop (8:09.92), Elphas Toroitich Ndiwa (8:10.66) and Elijah Cheptoyek (8:10.67) hit the required time for the World Athletics U20 Championships of 8:15.00.

Disappointments

Patience Cherop and Brenda Chekwemoi missed the qualification times for the U20 Championships by 13 and 33 microseconds posting 4:29.13 and 4:29.33 respectively.

Similarly in the Women’s 3000m U20 race, Police athletes, Scarlet Chebet and Risper Cherop narrowly missed out on the qualification time for the games to be hosted in Cali, Colombia, by 10 and 37 microseconds respectively.

Chebet won the race with 9:32.10 whereas Cherop came in second with a time of 9:32.37 of the required 9:32.00.