Welcome to Athletes Hub For Kenya Paralympics
Athletes Information
Wesley Kimeli Sang
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth: March 1, 1994
Sport: Para-Athletics
Event: (1,500 T46)
Disability: Right-Hand Disability
Sang represented Kenya for the first time in high school at the 2015 African Games in Congo, Brazzaville. He competed in 400m T47 and reached the final to win the event, but his victory wasn’t ratified since he had not been graded.
He was to represent Kenya at the 2017 London World Para Athletics Championships, but the team arrived late for the event, hence time-barred.
However, he made it to the 2019 Dubai World-Para Athletics Championships, reached the final of the 1,500m T46 to finish sixth in a personal best of 4:02.07 in the event won by Bulgarian Hristiyan Stoyanov in a Championship record of 3:50.87.
It’s at the 2023 Paris World Para-Athletics Championships, where Sang ironically nailed his qualification for the Paris Summer Games, finishing fourth in the 1,500m T46 in another personal best 3:59.34. Stoyanov retained his title in 3:52.56.
Mary Waithera Njoroge & her guide
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth: January 3, 1984
Sport: Para-Athletics
Event: 1,500 T11, 400 T11
Disability: Visually impaired
Qualified to represent Kenya at the 2017 London World Para Athletics Championships, but the team arrived late for the event and was time-barred.
However, he made it to the 2019 Dubai World-Para Athletics Championships, reached the final of the 1,500m T11 to finish fourth behind winner Monica Olivia Rodriguez Saavedra from Mexico, Chinese He Shanshan, who got silver and Kenya’s Nancy Chelangat, who got bronze.
That enabled her to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games, where she settled seventh in Japan, where compatriot Nancy Chelangat won bronze as Mexican Mónica Olivia Rodríguez went gold with South African Louzanne Coetzee settling for silver.
Waithera settled for bronze in Personal Best 4:30.98 in 1,500m T11 at the 2023 World Para-Athletics Championships. Her colleague Nancy Chelangat won gold in a new Championship Record of 4:22.15 as South Africa’s Louzanne Coetzee second in 4:22.50.
Waithera’s exploits would send her back to Paris for her second 2024 Summer Paralympic Games.
Waithera embraced athletics in primary school, where she competed in 5,000m and cross country up top high school level.
She lost sight in 2011 after she suffered optic atrophy, which refers to the death of the retinal ganglion cell axons that comprise the optic nerves. But she resumed training in 2015, where she trained for four months to earn selection to Team Kenya for the Seoul 2015 IBSA World Games, competing in 5,000m T11.
However, in 2016, she turned to 1,500m R11 to better her chances of qualifying for the world championships and Paralympic Games, a move she doesn’t regret.
Nancy Chelangat Koech
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth:
Sport: Para-Athletics
Event: 1,500 T11
Disability: Visually Impaired
She represented Kenya at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and she won the silver medal in the women’s 1,500m T11 event.
Chelangat collected a bronze medal in the women’s 1,500m T11 at the 2019 World Para-Athletics Championships held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She lost to Monica Olivia Rodriguez Saavedra from Mexico, who went for gold, while He Shanshan of China went for silver.
The performance saw her secure her second appearance at the Paralympics during the delayed 2020 Tokyo Summer Games in 2021. She went on to claim bronze in the 1,500m T11, which was the only medal for Kenya from the Tokyo Games.
Mexican Mónica Olivia Rodríguez won gold, with South African Louzanne Coetzee settling for silver.
The 2023 World Para-Athletics Championships proved a breakthrough for Chelangat, where she won gold in the 1,500m T11 in a new Championship Record of 4:22.15. She beat South Africa’s Louzanne Coetzee to second in 4:22.50 as compatriot Mary Waithera Njoroge settled for bronze in Personal Best 4:30.98.
Asiya Sururu Mohammed
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth: April 25, 1992, Mombasa, Kenya
Sport: Para-Rowing
Event: single sculls
Disability: Amputee (both legs)
She took up the sport of rowing at the age of 29 in 2018.
She participated in the International Para-rowing at Gavirate Regatta in Italy from 18-19, 2019, which was also her first international rowing event.
In October 2019, she received the qualification slot from the 2019 Africa Continental Qualification to participate at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in the women’s PR1 single sculls rowing, just three years after taking the sport of rowing.
That made her the first female to represent Kenya in the Olympics or Paralympics.
Sururu qualified for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games during the Africa qualifiers held in October 2023 in Regatta, Tunisia.
She won the PR1 women’s single sculls (12:44) to become the first Kenyan rower to qualify for two consecutive Paralympic Games.
Additionally, Sururu set two world indoor rowing records in 2023 – the Concept2 Row ski bike ERG (indoor rowing) of 60 minutes over a distance of 11,243m on October 7. She went for the second record four days later with a new mark of 30 over a distance of 5,610m in the women’s 30-39 PR1.
She was declared the 2023 Sportswoman with Disability during the 2023 Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya) Gala.
Samwel Mushai (right) with his guide Jean Kipchumba
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth: December 26, 1989
Sport: Para-Athletics
Event: 5,000m T11
Disability: Visually impaired
Multiple Paralympic medallist Samuel Mushai Kimani, who is chasing his fourth Paralympics appearance, has three medals from the Paralympics – two gold and a silver.
Mushia won 1,500m T11 silver on his debut at the Paralympics during the 20008 Beijing Games. He would improve to gold four years later at the 2012 London Paralympic Games in a World and Games Record of three minutes and 58:37 seconds. He went on to seal a double at the 2016 Rio Paralympics with victory in the 5,000m T11.
Mushai maintained his grip over T11 distance running with two more gold medals at the London 2017 World Championships in 1,500m and 5,000m guided by James Boit
MUshai’s achievement in 2018 was enough to see him declared the 2017 Sports Personality of the Year (Soya) winner, beating heavyweights, who had won world titles that Year-Elijah Manangoi (1,500m), Hellen Obiri (5,000m) and Faith Kipyegon (1,500m).
Mushai became the only other para athletes to have won Soya accolades besides Henry Wanyoike, who won the inaugural 2004 event.
Mushai took the 2019 Dubai World Championships by storm, settling for silver in 1,500m T11 before retaining his 5,000m T11 title.
His exploits in Dubai saw him qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics that were delayed for 2021 due to Covid-19. However, a hamstring injury in the last minute saw his dream of competing in the men’s 1,500m and 5,000m T11 go up in smoke.
Mushai, who was born in Kitale, started having itching eyes at the age of nine and the situation worsened in 2000 when he couldn’t read, forcing him out of school.
In 2003 he enrolled at St. Francis School for the Blind in West Pokot County where he met fellow Kenyan visually impaired Para athlete Joseph Lomong, who told him becoming blind wasn’t the end of the world and encouraged him to take up Para athletics.
Mushai got down to business where he trained in sprint events, 100m, 200, 400m after school before graduating top 800m and 1,500m.
Come 2007, Mushai won the trials for the African Games in Algiers where he went on to win in 1,500m T11 to set the stage for his Paralympics debut in 2008b Beijing.
Wthno international events in in 2009 and 2010, Mushai hit the road again in 2011, which took him to the World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand where he collected silver in 1,500m T11, losing to Brazilian Odair Santos.
That catapulted him to his second Paralympic Games in 2012 London where he claimed his maiden victory in a world record time, earning him his first nomination at Soya Award.
He came back strongly in 2015 after a relatively quiet 2013 and 2014 seasons, winning bronze in 400m at the 2015 African Games in Congo, Brazzaville before moving to 5,000m for the first time in 2016.
Samson Ojuka
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth: April 13, 1996
Sport: Para-Athletics
Event: 100m, 200m, long jump T11
Disability: Erbs Palsy
Despite his disability on his right arm, Samson Ojuka played football as a striker for his Maseno School, guiding the team to provincial championships.
Ojuka joined Komarock Football Club in Nairobi upon completing high school but his sports passion shifted to athletics upon joining Kenyatta University for a degree in law in 2018.
Drawn into athletics by the likes former national 400m champion Boniface Mweresa, Ojuka embraced sprints at the varsity, competing in 100m and 200m,
It didn’t take long before he featured at the World Grand Prix in Tunisia and Morocco in 2019, competing in 100m and 200m and long jump.
Ojuka made his debut at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai where he clocked 12.39 seconds PB to finish sixth in 100m and sixth in 200m in 25.19 all in the semis.
Come the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris, France, Ojuka would manage a personal best 5.58m to finish seventh in long jump won by Brian Lionel Impellizzeri from Argentina in the Championships Record of 6.67m.
At the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan, Ojuka settled sixth improving his career best to 5.73m, an achievement that placed him in high performance to get the 2024 Paris Paralympics ticket.
Ojuka’s dream this summer is to win a Paralympic medal and finish his law degree course at the Kenyatta University. Ojuka aims to attack his current personal best of 5.73m for a new career best of over 6.30m.
Julieta Moipo
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth: December 5, 2001
Sport: Para-Taekwondo
Event: Under-57Kgs
Disability: Arm impairment, upper limb
Moipo, who had her right arm amputated at the age of three years after a nasty fall from the table while playing, ditched athletics for taekwondo after completing her form four at Milimani Secondary School in Samburu in 2022.
A friend introduced Moipo to taekwondo in Laikipia, before she briefly trained with coach Francis Odak, who has a taekwondo club in Nanyuki.
Lalkalepi then introduced Moipo to the national coach Philip Khaemba in Nairobi. This journey saw Moipo take her game to the next level as a huge opportunity cropped up for her maiden international outing.
Her destination was the African Taekwondo Championships that doubled up for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games qualifiers in February in Dakar, Senegal.
Moipo was declared the winner and handed the ticket in under-57 to the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games without throwing a kick with no opponent available.
Stency Neema
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth: February 1, 2002
Sport: Para-Taekwondo
Event: Under-52Kgs
Disability: Arm impairment, upper limb
Described as a jack of all trades, Stency started playing badminton in 2016, while in Form One at Oyugi Ogango Girls High School in Migori County. She joined from the Daisy Special School for the physically and mentally challenged persons in Kakamega County
Stency is in the Standing Upper (SU5) class in badminton. Athletes in this class have impairments in their upper limbs, which restricts grip and power.
Her maiden international tour in sports took her to the 2022 Dubai Badminton International where she went down in the round of 32 to top-seeded, and role model Megan Hollander (Netherlands) 21-8 21-8.
Stency is also a 100m and 200m sprinter classified in T47 (arm impairment, upper limbs). Her first international athletics tour was at the 2023 World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Venice, Italy in May, where she won silver in 100m and bronze in 200m.
She qualified for the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in France in July, finishing fourth in the 200m heats and missed the Paris Paralympics qualification.
Stency, who is coached in both badminton and athletics by renowned national badminton head coach John Odhiambo, took a shot at para skiing, a development that saw her train and compete in South Korea in January 2023 after sponsorship from the Korean Ministry of Sports.
She took up para taekwondo in 2022 to qualify for the 2024 Paris Paralympics. The gamble paid off when she attended the African Taekwondo Championships that doubled up for the Paris Paralympic Games qualifiers in February in Dakar, Senegal.
Stency was declared the winner and handed the ticket in under-52 to the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games without throwing a kick after her opponent from Egypt failed to show up.
Stency will complete her Diploma in Business Management at the Nairobi Institute of Business Studies this year.
Hellen Wawira
Nationality: KenyanDate of Birth: April 15, 1992
Sport: Powerlifting
Event: Under-41kg
Disability: Spina Bifida
World Cup
Malaysia, 2016-Bronze
Mexico 2017- Fourth
Nigeria 2020-Gold
Egypt 2022- Silver
Egypt 2023-Gold
Georgia 2024-Bomb (no position)
World Championships
Dubai 2019- Bomb
2022 USA-Gold
2023 Dubai-Fourth
Commonwealth Games
Australia 2018- Fourth
Great Britain 2022-Bronze
African Games
Congo Brazzaville 2015-Bronze
Paralympics
Tokyo 2021- fifth
Paris 2024
It’s international Gabriel Magu, who drew Wawira into powerlifting in 2015 after they attended a Spina Bifida seminar in Kijabe.
Wawira has gone on to compete six Powerlifting World Cup Championships, three World Powerlifting Championships, two Commonwealth Games and one African Games.
Her appearance at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games will be her second appearance at the Summer Games, having competed in 2021 Tokyo.
She has four medals from the world cup; two gold, a silver and a bronze. She collected bronze on her debut in 2016 Malaysia before finishing fourth in the same championships in Mexico in 2017.
Her moment finally came in 2020 Nigeria where she claimed gold before returning in 2022 Egypt to win silver. She recaptured her title in 2023 Egypt.
Wawira has one medal from the World Championships; a gold medal. She won the world title in 2022 USA despite having recovered from Covid-19, a disease she contracted while in the USA.
“The USA event is the most memorable and exciting so far. I never thought I would compete after Covid-19 took me down. God is good that I won after failing to lift ‘bombing’ in Dubai in 2019,” said Wawira, who returned to Dubai in 2023 to settle fourth at the World Championships.
She has bronze from the 2022 Commonwealth Games, having finished fourth at the 2018 “Club” Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
Her maiden tour was at the 2015 African Games in Congo Brazzaville, having just been a few months after taking up the powerlifting sport. Her efforts yielded bronze.
She secured fifth place on her first appearance at the Paralympics during the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games.
Her superior world ranking, seventh overall in the world in women’s up to 41kg, saw her make the cut among the top eight lifters for the 2024 Paralympic Games.
John Lokedi
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth: July 12, 2000
Sport: Athletics
Event: 5,000m T13
Disability: Partially blind
Grand prix:
2020 Morocco- 5,000m- gold, 1,500m- silver
2021 Dubai- 1,500m-gold, 5,000m-silver.
2022 Dubai- 5,000m-gold, 1,500m-gold
2022 Tunis- 5,000m -gold
2024 Dubai- 5,000m- gold, 1,500m silver
World Para Athletics Championships
2023 Paris- 5,000m – Fifth
2024 Kobe, Japan- 5,000m fourth, 1,500m 11th.
Lokedi was born with limited vision. Lokedi was brought up by his mother Christine in a family of five boys after his father passed on while still young. He picked up athletics while at St Francis School for the Blind in Kapenguria, West Pokot where he cleared in 2021. He embraced sports-volleyball and football-before settling for athletics.
Though he has competed in a couple of grand prix events, his first major outing was the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris where he finished fifth in 5,000m T13, missing to qualify for the Paris Paralympics by a whisker. Top four athletes gained automatic qualification to the Games.
Lokedi finished fourth in 5,000m in personal best 14:57.72 and 11th in 1,500m during the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan.
His time in the 5,000m placed Lokedi in High Performance ranking hence qualifying for his maiden Paralympic Games at the Paris 2024.
Kennedy Ogada
Nationality: Kenyan
Date of Birth: October 17, 1971
Sport: Cycling
Event: B1
Disability: Blind
2021 World Para Road Cycling Championships (Portugal)- 33.6km Time Trial tandem-18th. Road Race-17th (Pilot-Martin Ngochi)
-2022 Commonwealth Games (Great Britain)- Track (Velodrome) 1km Time Trial tandem- seventh. Track-sprint tandem- semi-final (Pilot-Peter Mwangi).
2023 World Para Road Cycling Championships (Glasgow, Poland)-Time Trials tandem-23rd. Road Race-17th. (Pilot-Peter Mwangi)
2024 Confederation of Africa Cycling (CAC) Para-cycling Championships, Cairo, Egypt- Road Race Time Trials Tandem- gold. Road Race- silver.