Judith Ayaa: Progressively breaking the 400m record in Africa
Judith Ayaa was the dominant female sprinter at the Central and East African Athletic Championships from 1968 to 1972. During the same time period, she was not only the 4-time 400-meter champion, but also often competed and won in the 100. meters and 200 m, as well as when he was part of the Ugandan relay teams. Ayaa’s victory in the 400 meters at the ECA championship in Dar-es-Salaam was a new African record: 53.6. By virtue of this personal best time in 1969, Ayaa was ranked in 1969 among the 10 best female 400 meter sprinters in the world.
Because there was a relatively low number of women competing in the 400 meters at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, only one semi-final and one final would take place. On July 22, 1970 he lined up in the second of two semifinal ties. He won in quite an astonishing time – 52.86 – a new African record. Time ranked her as the eleventh best in the world in 1970.
The final took place on the 23rd. But having been the fastest among the semifinalists, Ayaa perhaps had run too fast. Perhaps he should have run at a relaxed pace, fast enough to be in the top four of any of the semi-final heats that would guarantee his qualification for the final. In this second semifinal series, Australia’s Sandra Brown finished second in a full second behind Ayaa. The first semi-final series in which Marilyn Fay Neufville of Jamaica won at 53.05 was apparently one of more tact and relaxation.
In the final, Neufville, a slim and relatively short 17-year-old, won at 51.02, a new world record. She won by a staggering more than two seconds ahead of Australian silver medalist Sandra Brown (53.66). Neufville thus reduced by almost a second the world record of 51.7 set in 1969 by the French Colette Besson and Nicole Duclos. Judith Ayaa, outmatched after slowing down near the end of the race, probably due to fatigue after her unnecessary effort in the semi-finals, was third (53.77) very close to Sandra Brown and won bronze. Fatigue had probably cost him at least the silver medal; But Commonwealth bronze would be one of Ayaa’s most prized international possessions! It was the first Ugandan Commonwealth Games medal ever won by a woman!
In 1970, at the East Central Africa Championships held in Nairobi, Ayaa won the 400 meters in 54.0. That was in addition to his victory in the 100 meters.
Ayaa competed in the Pan African-United States Athletics Meet held in mid-July 1971 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. His time to win the gold medal was 54.69.
Still in 1971, at the ECA Championship in Lusaka, Ayaa won in the 400 meters (54.7); and was part of the winning Ugandan gold medal teams in both sprint relays.
Ayaa competed in a two-day pre-Olympic match (“Hanns-Braun Memorial International Pre-Olympic Invitational”) in mid-August 1972 in Munich, in preparation for the next Olympic Games in the same West German city.
Ayaa, 20, participated in all 3 heats of the women’s 400 meters. The first classified in the general would be indicated. In total, Ayaa’s time was second best, 52.68, a new African record. Later, in early September 1972, in Munich at the Olympics, Ayaa re-timed herself at 52.68 seconds when she finished third in the quarterfinals and advanced to the semi-finals. In this way, he equaled his personal record and that of Africa. Ayaa would be eliminated from advancing to the Olympic finals when she finished seventh (52.91) in a series of semi-finals.
At the pre-Olympic match in Munich, on the second day of the match, Ayaa also competed in the 200 meters and finished fifth. The results were (AP 1972: 66):
1. Marina Sidorova (Soviet Union), 23.78; 2. Karollne Kaefer (Austria), 23.99; 3. Vilma Charlton (Jamaica), 24.04; 4. Una Morris (Jamaica), 11/24; 5. Judith Ayaa (Uganda), December 24.
Judith Ayaa would disappear from the limelight of international competition after 1973. President Idi Amin Dada presented her with the Ugandan flag in her capacity as captain of the national team heading to Lagos for the Africa Games in January 1973. She It was expected to win in the 400 meters. But possibly due to injury, illness or improper training, he did not compete in any of the individual sprints at Lagos. But she possibly competed in the women’s 4x400m relay in which Uganda won gold.
Much more was expected of this elite young African athlete, one of the few African women to reach such a peak during the dawn of female power athletes. It would take three decades to break Ayaa’s Ugandan national record in the 400 meters. After more than four decades, the current Ugandan record (52.48; although it is 52.2 in 1996 by Grace Birungi, according to some reports) of Justine Bayigga, set in 2008, is only 0.2 seconds lower than the national and African record set by Judith Ayaa. in 1972.
Cited works
AP (August 17, 1972). “Second day of the sports festival,” in “San Bernardino County Sun,” page 66.
