PRESS RELEASE ISSUED 11.55hrs (UGANDAN TIME) 1 JUNE 2012
14th AKII-BUA MEMORIAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
AKII-BUA CHAMPS
* The 14th Akii Bua Memorial Championships takes place on Saturday 2 June 2012, at the Mandela National Stadium, Kampala. There will be the normal MTN cash prizes.
SPECIAL JESSE OWENS BOOK PRIZE
* John Akii Bua, winner of the 400m hurdles Gold Medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics, is Uganda’s most famous Olympian.
* Arguably, the most famous Olympian of all-time is the African-American sprinter Jesse Owens. He won 4 Gold Medals (100m, 200m, Long Jump and 4x100m relay) at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. But Owens performance was hugely historically significant beyond sport. For he personally debunked the evil Aryan racial supremacy theories of Hitler’s Nazi regime.
* Kevin and Sue O’Connor are pleased to announce an additional prize for tomorrow’s Akii-Bua meet. It is Jeremy Schaap’s highly acclaimed book, ”TRIUMPH – THE UNTOLD STORY OF JESSE OWENS AND HITLER’S OLYMPICS”. The book has been donated by an Irish reader of the UK’s prestigious magazine Athletics Weekly (AW).
* It will be presented to the best performing athlete from the male and female individual track events in which Owens won his Gold Medals i.e. 100m, 200m and Long Jump. The best performance will be identified using the IAAF Scoring Tables.
ATHLETICS WEEKLY
* In addition to tomorrow’s book, AW readers have already provided the following prizes this Ugandan track season: 2nd Trial (17 March) – 168 magazines; 3rd Trial (7 April) – 25 T-Shirts; 4th Trial (12 May) 23magazines.
