(Ojijo is a lawyer, author, poet, pianist, business coach, career
mentor, public speaker & strategic planning consultant)
Dorcus Inzikuru
(born February 2, 1982 in Vurra, Arua District) is a Ugandan track and field
athlete competing in the steeplechase. She won the inaugural world title in
women's 3000 m steeplechase, as well as the first Commonwealth title in the
event. Her coach is Renato Canova. Sometimes her name is spelt
"Docus". It was misspelled in her passport, and the mistake was
perpetuated when she entered international races.
Inzikuru won the
bronze medal in the 5000 metres at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, finishing behing
Meseret Defar, and Tirunesh Dibaba. She also won at cross country, beating
all-comers at the Eurocross meeting that year.
2005 World
Championships
In 2005, at the
World Championships, in Helsinki, Finland, Inzikuru ended Uganda's 33-year wait
for an athletics world title, winning the inaugural women's 3000 m steeplechase
event, in a time of 9:18.24 (at the time, the sixth best performance ever).
Inzikuru only became aware of the $60,000 prize after winning the final and
vowed to use her money to build a house and to help young athletes.
She had competed
in the 2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships that year but she finished
in 18th place. In 2006 she won the Oeiras International Cross Country meeting,
but she pulled out of that season's World Cross Country Championships.
After taking two
years out from athletics, due to giving birth to her first child (Emmanuelle
Munguci) and receiving treatment for sinus infections and various allergies,
she returned to competition. She won an 800 metres race in Namboole on 6 June
with a time of 2:12.0, later saying: "This is my first race after over two
years. I am just coming back and am proud of my time. It builds my
confidence". She competed sparingly over the following years and could not
recapture her steeplechase form, recording season's best of 9:53.02 and 9:54.50
minutes in 2010 and 2011.
She returned to
the top level of the sport in 2012, running a time of 9:30.95 minutes for the
steeplechase and qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics. The event had moved
on since her championship win, however, and she was not fast enough to reach
the final. She ran at the major Weltklasse and Internationales Stadionfest
meetings in Germany after the Olympic Games, but barely managed to reach the
top ten. In 2013 she attempted to reinvigorate her career with a switch to the
marathon, but on her debut at the Brighton Marathon she finished with a time of
2:42:38 hours, missing her target of the Ugandan record.
Inzikuru grew up
in Vurra, in Arua District, the daughter of an Anglican priest. Her parents
were both talented athletes, but did not compete internationally. She was the
third of eight children, but lost her two older brothers at the ages of eight
and fourteen, to typhoid and malaria.
Inzikurru is now
married to a doctor, Martin Bosco Acidri, a former sprinter. Inzikuru often
lives and trains in Turin and competes for the Milan club, Camelot. She often
trains with men's world record holder, Saif Saaeed Shaheen, as the two share
the same coach, Renato Canova.
Achievements
3000 m
Steeplechase[edit source | editbeta]
2005 World
Championships, Gold (9:18.24)
2005 World
Athletics Final, Gold
2006 Commonwealth
Games, Gold (9:19.51
3000 m[edit source
| editbeta]
1999 World Youth
Championships, 8th
5000 m[edit source
| editbeta]
1999 African
Games, 6th
2000 World Junior
Championships, Gold
2002 Commonwealth
Games, 4th
2002 African
Games, Silver
2003 Afro-Asian
Games, Bronze
Cross Country[edit
source | editbeta]
2000 World Junior
Championships, 10th
2004 World
Championships (short course), 38th
2005 World
Championships (short course), 18th
2007 World
Championships, DNF
Personal
bests
800 m, 2:02.00
One Mile, 4:36.05
3000 m, 8:46.29
5000 m, 15:05.30
2000 m
Steeplechase, 6:04.46
3000 m
Steeplechase, 9:15.04
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