During the weekend, sprinter Shida Leni was able to grab another win at the Kids of Africa Runs (5km, 10km, & 21km) races, which took place during the morning at the Kids Pioneer Primary School – Bugiri/Kisubi, Entebbe. The theme was “Running for Sanitation for the Girl Child.” There was a particular emphasis on the publicity about reusable sanitary pads.
ANOTHER 5km VICTORY
Despite being a sprinter, who specialises in the 400m and 200m, this was Shida’s second 5km win in a fortnight. The first was the Arua Rotary Cancer Run on August 25. Today, she finished a whole 6 minutes ahead of the next woman!
Shida has been under the management of coaches Kevin and Sue O’Connor for 11 years, where she has tremendously grown her skill set over the years representing the country at different levels of the athletic grind.
Shida holds the National Records for 400m and 200m. She has competed in the Olympics, the World Championships and 3 Commonwealth Games. She won the World University Games silver medal, narrowly missing out on gold.
What’s Next for Shida Leni?
There will be plenty of challenges for Shida in 2025. The Islamic Solidarity Games will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But the big event is the World Athletics Championships which will be held in Tokyo from 13-21 September. More than 2000 athletes from some 200 countries will compete in Tokyo.
Total Running
The term “Total Running” means that an international runner should be willing to run over any distance from 100m to half marathon (21km). Thus these victories over 5km demonstrate Shida’s versatility and her adherence to “Total Running”.
Much of Shida’s success has been due to increased strength through weight training. We are most grateful to Silver Springs Hotel for giving her complimentary use of its Espace gym and swimming pool. The gym has made her immensely strong, and the swimming pool allows her to do some training when carrying an injury.
