CHENGDU WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES 
Host city: Chengdu, China
Dates: 4 August
Venue: Shuangliu Sports Centre Stadium
Events: Women’s & men’s 1500m, 800m

After winning the silver medal in the women’s 800m at the Chengdu World University games on Wednesday, Knight Aciru is gunning for another podium finish.

Aciru qualified for the 1500m finals with 4:24.56 finishing in the second position 10 seconds behind Poland’s Lizakowksa, who registered a time of 4:24.46.

In the aftermath of the 800m finals, Aciru told Vision Sport that her opponents used many tactics to push her out of the race.
 
However, before the 1500m qualification phase, Aciru Knight noted that she had to prepare mentally for the unexpected.

“Yesterday, their strategy of disorganizing me worked, but for today I will not let that happen.  I want to focus on my game plan today,” Aciru added.

“The good thing is that coming in today’s race, I also knew who they are and what they are capable of,” Aciru remarked.

“The only thing I was worried about was fatigue. Competing in two big races in a space of one day is challenging but am glad am now ready to go for another podium,” she stated.

She threw the Ugandan crowd in attendance at the Shuangliu Sports Centre stadium with her scintillating run from the start point.

Having qualified for the main race on 6 Sunday, Aciru is oozing with the same determination.

“I can not promise anything but I know if I improve from the time I set today, I can win,” Aciru stated.

Besides Aciru, Akemkwene Peter was also in action taking part in the men’s 800m, where he clocked 1:52.21 behind France’s Le Clezio.

He managed to advance to the semi-final heats tomorrow at 3:40 pm in Ugandan time.

In his remarks, Akemkwene said,” The race was fair but I had faced some problems while starting though I managed them and finished my race,”.

Akemkwene also felt that there was a lot of energy from the crowd.

“Sometimes the crowd can be a little intimidating but you decide to focus on the race,” he mentioned.

Strategy

“My game plan tomorrow is to stick to the way I think can help me win the race,” Akemkwene remarked.

“I want to qualify for the finals and that is my target. Hopefully, I can get it,” he said. 

Judging by the mind games, athletes from other countries are using on track, Ugandans have to be very cautious about how they react.

Faustino Kiwa, coach in charge of Athletics and who also doubles as a Uganda Athletics Federation administrator expressed his confidence in Peter Akemkwene.
“Peter is a very quiet boy, so many people do not what he is capable of and he can use that to his advantage,” Kiwa said.

“Without a doubt, he has potential, if he focuses on what he has to, then am confident he can progress to the next round,” he concluded.

Uganda has two medals (gold and silver) from Dismas Yeko in the men’s 10,000m and Aciru Knight in the women’s  800m.

Uganda’s participation at the World University Games was also supported by National Insurance Corporation Limited  (NIC), who are their official Health Insurance Sponsor for the Chengdu World University Games in China.