Nambawa crashes out in Moscow

By Norman Katende in Moscow

IAAF World Athletics Championships

Women Triple Jump Heat 1

1. O. Saladuha (UKR) 14.69

2. H. Knyazyeva-Minenko (ISR) 14.46

11. S. Nambawa (UGA) 13.31

SARAH Nambawa has described her triple jump as terrible and disastrous, and one that she would like to forget fast after failing to improve on her personal best at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Luzhiniki Stadium.

The double Africa champion failed to make a clean jump on her first two attempts before making a poor 13.31m jump on her third after intervention from team coach Benjamin Longiros who advised her to keep her calm. 

10000m runner Juliet Chekwel and team manager Domenic Otuchet cheered her on from the stands.

Nambawa did enventually put in a clean jump at the third time asking but it wasnt enough to stop her being eliminated. Photo by Norman Katende.

“It was terrible. I have nothing to talk about it. A very bad jump,” she said at the athlete-media mixed zone before she departed the stadium.

Though the qualification mark had been put at 14.30m only five jumpers managed to scrape through on best distances jumped including the final attempt at 13.88m which is way below Nambawa’s personal best of 14.05.

Head of delegation Domenic Otuchet, Juliet Chekwel and coach Benjamin Longiros watch on from the stands. Photo by Norman Katende.

Nambawa mistimed her sprints in both the first two jumps only to end up running onto the sand pit.

Ukraine’s Olha Saluduha won the heat and registered the best performance in both heats where only seven jumpers made the required 14.30 standard for Thursday evening’s final.

Nambawa became the first Ugandan to win an Africa medal in a horizontal jump when she finished top at the Africa Athletics championships that were held in Nairobi in 2010.