Young Andrew Lokuk chases glory in hammer throw
Andrew Rokuno Lokuk takes part during a training session on July 4, 2017 at Kenya Prisons Nairobi West ground ahead of the World Under-18 Athletics Championships. PHOTO | CHRIS OMOLLO |
What you need to know:
- Field athlete pleads with AK to sustain youth camps.
- Form Three student, who discovered his potential in field events at Mount Elgon camp, hopes to continue steady rise.
Andrew Lokuk, a Form Three student at Ortum High School in West Pokot County, credits his quick rise in athletics to a burning desire for something more challenging and exciting in life.
Last year, the 17-year-old took a leap of faith, leaving his school’s music club where he had been a member since Form One to join athletics club, where he majored in field events.
He took up hammer, shot-put and discus competitions, and has never look back. But it’s in hammer where the youngster with a humble background became so well entrenched he reached the final of secondary school Games in Embu last year.
“I wanted to do something different and my move to switch to field events in athletics was out of self-drive,” said Lokuk, who comes from a family of five boys and two girls.
In Embu, Lokuk threw a distance of 28 metres to finish sixth but that didn’t discourage him even as he recorded seven metres in shot-put and 27m in discus.
A holiday camp held for World Under-18 Championship hopefuls in April at Kapsokwony Camp and which was hosted at Friends Moi High School in Kaptama, Mount Elgon, came as a blessing to Lokuk, who had yearned to polish his throwing technique.
And to his amazement, Lokuk recorded 35m in hammer throw, 10.5m in shot-put and 35m in discus. “But my heart was in hammer where I thought I would do well,” says Lokuk. “The camp coordinated by coach Boniface Tiren was the best thing that happened to some of us.”
Lokuk would haul 45m at the pre-trials in March in Eldoret before posting similar results at the trials last month in Nairobi.
“I’ve tremendously improved, especially with gym sessions since the residential training started,” says Lokuk, who is full of praise for his school principal, Jonathan Siwanyang, who helped him get the required training and also pays his school fee.
“I just want to beseech the government and Athletics Kenya to uphold the holiday camps for all the athletics events,” says Lokuk, adding that a lot of talent discovered at the world youth camps should not be left to go to waste. “Most of the budding athletes in field events lack proper guidance. This should change.”
