The memory of that special summer moment still gives Ugandan athlete Knight Aciru goosebumps. This year in Chengdu, the 25-year-old became the third female Ugandan student to win a medal at the FISU World University Games, taking silver in the 800m final with a time of 2:04.34.
Knight, a third-year accounting student at the Ndejje University in Uganda, was confident going into the two-lap final after winning her semi-final against a tough field.
“I was confident about my race, because I knew I could fight for a medal, and I wasn’t afraid of my opponents, even though some of them were faster than me,” she told FISU.net.
In a hard-fought final, Knight was beaten by Italy’s Laura Pellicono by just 14 fractions of a second, but the fact that she won one of only two medals for her country in the competition made her immensely proud.
“Winning this silver medal at the FISU Games in Chengdu is my greatest achievement. This will now serve as a stepping stone for me in the future,” she said.
“Competition at the student level has become like any other high-profile event in the world these days,” she says. “The reason for this is that there is very little difference in these events, as several students who have competed in the FISU Games have also qualified for these major competitions as well,” she added.
Knight cites Ugandan record holder and former World 800m champion Halima Nakaayi as her hero, who also came up through the ranks at the university level in Uganda and has been an inspiration to Knight and many of her fellow athletes back home.
“University sport in Uganda is at a high level and has been the starting point for many of the country’s most decorated athletes like Nakaayi and [multiple Olympic, World Championship and Commonwealth Games champion] Joshua Cheptegei. They all started their running careers at the university level and progressed rising up to the highest levels they have now reached.” Knight hopes to follow in their footsteps but also recognises the importance of having a degree behind her.
“I will be concentrating on my running career for a few years after graduation to see if I can excel. But I feel great knowing that if running doesn’t work out, I’ll have my education behind me, so I can able to settle down somewhere and continue to develop my knowledge.”
Knight believes that the level of competition at the FISU Games was incredibly high and that an uninformed audience should not be misled by the word “student” when discussing the World University Games.
