The Brief
Uganda: Winnie Nanyondo
Event: Women’s 1500m semifinal 2
Date: Wednesday, August 4
Time: 1:12pm
TV: Sanyuka TV
Uganda’s Middle distance runner Winnie Nanyondo will be targeting a place in the Women’s 1500m final.
Nanyondo clocked 4:02.24 in Tokyo on Monday to safely progress into Wednesday’s semifinal.
The Mulago-born, 27, came second in her heat and you could feel that she left a lot in her tank.
Going into the semis, the first five in each of the two semis and the next two across both heats will storm the final due Friday at 3:50pm.
She is in a tough field alongside Sifan Hassan (Netherlands), Laura Muir (Great Britain), Lemlem Hailu (Ethiopia) and Hall Linden (Australia) among others.
She ran her seasonal best of 4:00.84 in Diamond League in Florence and that surely put her in great stead to make her sail through.
However, as the old adage goes – the higher you go, the cooler it becomes – Nanyondo may need to break the four-minute barrier, like she did in Rabat in 2019, to have a chance of advancing forward.
Nanyondo earlier missed a place in the 800m final and will be hoping for better fortunes at the distance in which she is ranked seventh in the World.
On Monday Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan who fell at the start of the final lap recovered to win in extraordinary fashion, her presence in Nanyondo’s semifinal 2 heat may make it faster of the two.
