Kampala: 32 yr old Odong James from Nsambya created history in Uganda yesterday when he broke the almost 50 yr old national long jump record of Fidelis Ndyabagye. Odong jumped over a 10 meters long pothole cleanly demolishing the record of 7.75 meters that Ndayabagye set on 26th July 1978 at the All Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria.
Just when nation was feeling low and unhappy at the few cases of corruption, this news has come as a source of great joy for the nation. Even though the record isn’t recognized by Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) since it wasn’t an official event, KCCA has recognized this achievement and announced a cash reward of 10m Uganda shillings. URA has chipped in with 1m and has pledged to tax the final amount by 95%.
The 10 meters long pothole located in downtown Kampala has also been cordoned off by KCCA law enforcement unit to ensure nobody fills it up by mistake. As per unreliable government sources, all aspiring long jumpers in Uganda will be trained at that site now.
“This is a source of great pride for Kampala city. Even if the record is not recognized even internationally, we now know what our residents are capable of. This also gives us hope that we can win a gold medal at the world athletics championships soon. There is no way anyone can come close to a 10 meters leap achieved by Odong”, said a smiling official from the Education & Sports ministry, Kamada Andrew.
KCCA also has taken advantage of the incident too and said ,”We are in talks with our road contractors to continue the shoddy work so that more potholes develop on our roads. This will help even more athletes to come out. Who knows, we may end up all 3 medals in the long jump event at any championship. We have also asked them to create at least three huge potholes very close to each other so that triple jump event is also practiced.”
When UCN asked Odong how he managed to break this record, he said,”Look, I had just bought brand new white sneakers from Owino market. I was just focusing on ensuring that my shoes don’t get wet, I jumped a huge lake pothole and was told by boda-bodas that I had just broken a record.”
