Of all the 12 Ugandan athletes at the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships, 800m runner Ronald Musagala will be first on track when the world meet gets underway on Saturday morning. The 20-year-old will line up in lane 5 of heat 2 of the two-lap race at the Luzhniki Stadium in the Russian capital of Moscow.
“Its a great feeling,” the Kampala University student told Kawowo Sports before the left on Tuesday. “Getting onto the turf first will make many people remember me even if I don’t win a medal,” he said.
Musagala is even much more thrilled owing to the fact that he was the last among the dozen athletes to qualify for the event. “I feel blessed at some point.” Musagala clocked 1:45.47 en-route finishing second at the National Championships on July 20.
In doing so, he had cleared the qualification grade B mark of 1:46.20, thereby becoming the only athlete to make the global event from a local competition. Musagala, also a 1500m runner, is displeased he won’t run alongside world champion and record holder injured Kenyan David Rudisha.