NAKAAYI Halimah

General
EARLY DAYS
Her family were initially reluctant to allow her to pursue athletics and wanted her to focus on education. She combined sport with studying for a bachelor's degree, and graduated in 2018. "My mum used to tell me, 'Halimah I need a degree from you'. You know, my mum did not get access to education; she gave birth to me when she was 15 years old. She thought maybe running would stop my studying. I'm from a strong Muslim family with hajis [pilgrims]. My dad was like, 'No, you can't do it. How come in the whole family you want to claim that you will be the first athlete? Have you ever seen anyone from the Central [Ugandan region] running? No, no, no, you are losing track'. With time my dad saw my performance in school was not declining as much as my athletics was progressing, so he said, 'OK you can do it'." (olympicchannel.com, 13 Apr 2020; Sanyuka TV Facebook page, 15 Jun 2020; Facebook profile, 29 Sep 2018)

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP DANCE
She and fellow Ugandan runner Winnie Nanyondo became the first Ugandan female athletes to compete in the 800m final at the world championships when the pair placed first and fourth, respectively, at the 2019 edition in Doha, Qatar. They performed a celebratory dance together after the race. "The dance, well, we rehearsed before. Because the moment we made it to the final it was a great achievement to us. No Ugandan lady had ever made it to the 800m final. We said to ourselves, we will not pressurise ourselves going into the final. This was already a great achievement. Whichever position we shall finish our people would be as happy as we shall be. So we have to dance our dance, even if we finish number eight, or number six we have to show them our Central Ugandan dance." (olympicchannel.com, 13 Apr 2020; worldathletics.org, 05 Mar 2020)

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE
When she collapsed suddenly during a relay race in Uganda in 2012 she was feared to have died, and when she recovered she was urged to quit the sport by her family. "I collapsed just near my finishing point. I turned yellow. Everyone knew I was dead. News spread fast, everyone who heard the news ran wild. By the time I gained my senses, I didn't know my name. Everyone was like, 'Leave athletics'. All my family said, 'Please quit, quit'. I remembered it [her near-death experience] and everything the moment I crossed the line [to win 800m gold at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar]." (olympicchannel.com, 13 Apr 2020; monitor.co.ug, 06 Oct 2019)

She became the first Ugandan athlete to win a world championship medal in the 800m, when she claimed gold in the event at the 2019 edition in Doha, Qatar. (SportsDeskOnline, 16 Dec 2020)