For the fifth time in just over a year, quarter miler Shida Leni created the biggest roar during the fourth national athletics trials on Saturday at Namboole by breaking the women 400m record.
The 24-year-old was in sizzling form as she clocked a new personal best of 52.00 seconds to shatter her old mark of 52.12 seconds she set last year.
In February 2018, she erased Justine Bayigga’s old record of 52.48 set in Khartoum Sudan on May 26, 2008 to 52.47 before breaking it again three time, twice on one say.
Shida has been trained for almost 6 years by the husband and wife coaching team of Kevin and Sue O’Connor.
Kevin commented after the race: “This was another tremendous performance by this determined and dedicated athlete. Given she ran the last half of the race alone, she will undoubtedly go faster when she competes against runners who are of a similar standard or better than herself. The big challenge for her now is to improve to 51.80 sec, which is the qualifying time for next September’s IAAF World Championships in Doha,” Kevin said adding that a major reason for her improvement has been weight-training. She is tall and slender, but now also immensely strong.
With her sights set on the upcoming World Championships in Doha, Qatar this September, she continues to work harder.
“My next mission is to qualify for the World Championships. I want to continue training with my coaches Kevin and Sue (O’Connor) to keep improving my time,” she said.
“Breaking these records feels good because I can see the progress I am making. But I want to continue dominating this event and perform at major tournaments,” she added as quoted by Daily Monitor.
