Emong goes for treble

For this generation, whenever we reference Olympics, Joshua Cheptegei will easily roll off our limps. The three-time Olympic medalist has made us all guilty.

Before him, it was Stephen Kiprotich whose marathon gold at the London 2012 Olympics ended a 40-year wait.

If you go as far back as the 90s, then Davis Kamoga was the gold standard.

In winning 400m bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games, the sprinter ended a 24-year wait for a medal. Boxer John ‘The Beast’ Mugabi delivered silver in 1980.

“That bronze was the equivalent to some sort of gold,” many of those who lived in the ‘Kamoga era’ often say in giving him his flowers.  

David Emong belongs to that illustrious list. For Paralympic sport, the middle distance is more than just the gold standard.

He is the only Ugandan to win a medal at the quadrennial games. And unlike many of the aforementioned, he has returned with a medal more than once.

Emong won silver in the 1500m T46 race at the Rio Paralympics Games eight years ago.

This was Uganda’s first-ever Paralympic medal since the country debuted in the games in 1972.

He followed that up with bronze in Tokyo three years ago.

His race allows only athletes with a single arm, below the elbow. He or she must have normal function in both lower limbs. Other impairments included are in the trunk and upper limb function in throwing.

On Saturday, he has an opportunity to make it three in three when he races in the same race at the Stade de France in Paris, France.

This is the same track where Cheptegei won his coveted 10,000m gold and Peruth Chemutai added silver to her Tokyo 2020 gold in the 3,000m steeplechase.

However, while it might be easy to quantify the success of Cheptegei in terms of glitter, the same may not apply to Emong. His is a triumph against adversity.

The hope is that his victories, including gold at the 2017 World Para-Athletics Championships, continue to impact sports and disability advocacy.

Emong started running in primary school after his arm was permanently injured and largely immobilized in a schoolyard accident.

Although he was sometimes mocked, he never gave up on life. Rather Emong kept going, competing, and often winning, against able-bodied athletes.

He hopes his win inspires more kids with disabilities to join athletics.

“I am the model of disability; I really expect more people to come into the organization and inject some money. I say to my people, to my fellow athletes to go and qualify and we bring more medals,” Emong’s eternal cry goes.

“I really worked very hard to pave a way for other upcoming athletes that are coming behind me.”

He is ready for Paris. “I have managed to see the videos of my previous races and I know what I need to polish for Paris,” Emongo observed.

He can take a lot from training with Cheptegei and two-time world cross country champion Jacob Kiplimo.

Factfile

Name: David Emong

Date of birth: September 10, 1990

Sport: Para-athletics

Specialty: 1500m T-46

Medals

Gold at the 2017 World Para-Athletics Championships

Silver at the 2016 Paralympic Games

Bronze at the 2020 Paralympic Games