African Voices Changemakers sponsored by Globacom on the Cable News Network (CNN) will this week feature two sportsmen from the continent who are making positive impact in athletics world.
Viewers will be treated to the trajectories of the duo of Nigerian Olympic medal hopeful, Uche Eke, and Ugandan serial world record holder in athletics, Joshua Cheptegei, who are guests on the half-hour magazine programme.
Eke, 23, is a Computer Engineering graduate of University of Michigan, in United States of America and Nigeria’s only decorated gymnast. Eke believes gymnastics is a sport that helps youth to build character, attitudes and habits that can have positive influence on their future life. He therefore encourages them to key into the game.
Eke will become Nigeria’s first Olympic gymnast, having qualified for this year’s Olympic Games in Japan. Earlier, at the 2019 All-African Games in Rabat, Morocco, he won Nigeria’s first-ever gold medal on pommel horse and a bronze medal on parallel bars.
The second guest, Cheptegei, was born in 1997. He runs Cheptegei Development Foundation which develops and trains Ugandan under 16 kids in the field of athletics, thus preparing them for a future in the track and field profession.
A member of Ugandan National Police, Cheptegei is a world athletics champion. He won silver medal in the 10,000 meters event at the World Championship in London in 2017, followed by the world record for the 15 km road race in 2019, thus becoming the cross country world champion. He also added 10 km road race in Valencia, Spain.
In 2020, Cheptegei also set a world record as the tenth man in history to hold two world records concurrently in the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters.
Eke and Cheptegei will talk on their ambitions and accomplishments on African Voices Changemakers which airs on Saturday at 9.30 a.m. Repeats of the programme comes up on Sunday at 4.30 a.m., 7.30 a.m., 12.30 p.m. and 7.30 p.m.; on Monday at 4 a.m. and in two 15-minute parts on Tuesday at 6.45 p.m. and on Wednesday at 6.45 p.m.
