Joshua Cheptegei

Nigeria’s Uche Eke, an Olympic medal hopeful, and a Ugandan serial world record holder in athletics, Joshua Cheptegei, will be on CNN African Voices Changemakers this week for an expose on their ambitions and accomplishments.

The 30-minute programme, which is sponsored by Globacom, will parade 23-year-old Eke who graduated with honours in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, the United States of America. He   aims to become Nigeria’s first Olympic gymnast. He will feature alongside 24-year-old Cheptegei who is investing in the Ugandan youth through the Joshua Cheptegei Development Foundation where kids aged 16 and under are introduced to athletics.

Eke is well on the way to achieving his ambition as he won  Nigeria’s first-ever gold medal on pommel horse and a bronze medal on parallel bars at the 2019 All-African Games in Rabat, Morocco.  He hopes that more youth will embrace Gymnastics as a sport which helps to build character, attitudes and habits that can have positive influence on their future life.

Cheptegei, an employee of the Uganda National Police, became a world champion in the 10,000 meters race in 2019, and has set a world record as the tenth man in history to hold the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters world records concurrently, both set in 2020.

Uche Eke

He parades a string of world records including the silver medal in the 10,000 meters event at the World Championship in London in 2017. He went on to set another world record for the 15 km road race, becoming the cross country world champion in 2019. He set yet another record in the 10 km road race in Valencia, Spain, the same year.

African Voices Changemakers airs on DSTV Channel 401 on Saturday at 9.30 a.m. with repeats of the programme 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.


Hamzat