Leni qualifies for Commonwealth games

At the end of the fourth Athletic National Trials Shida Leni had become the first person to qualify for the Commonwealth games via the trials.

Leni, a Police Sports Club athlete was the winner of the 400m race by two precious seconds from teammates Scovia Ayikoru and Emily Nanziri in a time of 52.87 seconds.

She beat the 53 second qualifying mark by 1.3 microseconds, but she thinks she can do a lot better before the Commonwealth games.

Her secret to that would be shaving at least one second off her time ahead of the games.

"I still have a lot to work on. I need to lower that time to 51. God willing, I will be good to face the Commonwealth race," she said after her victory.

Her qualification was not only a victory for her, but also for the Uganda Athletics Federation and everyone that was in attendance at Namboole National Stadium.

Leni failed to qualify for the Olympics when she did not beat the qualification mark, so it was imperative that she beat the clock.

"This is a very good experience for me because I tried to qualify for the Olympics, but when I was out of seconds I was very hurt. I was like, oh my God why can't I make it but it really gave me courage  to believe," leni said.

Puis Adome was once again dominant in the 200m, but failed to nail the qualifying mark.

Halima Nakaayi, Docus Ajok and Winnie Nanyondo in the 800m set a time of 2:04.36, while Ajok and Nanyondo each set 2:05.04 and 2:09.69 respectively.