Emong urges corporates to support athletes

The T46 1500m World Para Athletics champion David Emong has urged corporate companies to support athletes because Uganda has a lot of medal potential at international level.

Emong made the appeal on Wednesday in his acceptance speech at the Nile Special USPA dinner at Imperial Royale Hotel where he was awarded the sports personality for July award. Joshua Cheptegei (August) and the Women Cricket team (September) also claimed trophies and sh500,000  each.

"You need to train hard but after training hard you also have to eat well that is why I appeal to corporate companies to come on board and support these athletes," Emong stated.

He cited the example where his teammates Christine Akullo, Sam Mubajje and Al-Bashir Bwaga were dropped from the team due to lack of funds.

He also urged athletes not to give up their careers easily after losing an event, but go back and train to make a comeback like he did.

"After losing an event go back and study your opponents' strength and then train hard as you prepare for the next event," Emong stated.

"I used to train hard. I did my guerrilla training which even able bodied people could not do and I also prayed to God," he stressed.

The trio received their trophies and cash for their best performance from Castle Lite brand manager Julian Sentamu who appealed to athletes to persevere in their careers.

This was during the Nile Special/USPA quarterly awards dinner for the best performers for the month of July, August and September 2017.

Emong registered his personal best time of three minutes 58.36 seconds to beat his arch-rival and 2016 Olympic champion Samir Nouioua of Algeria who was second.

Emong tipped athletes to not just train hard but be strategic in their training so that they can be able to defeat their opponents.