TIME WITH LARIBA SAKAT JULIANA

Life is a mystery that no one can really understand. There are some personalities that you hear of them and wonder how you will ever meet them but today we see some of these personalities that we never thought of meeting around. Amazingly they are all down to earth and easy to get along with. One of them is our very own Lariba.

In an interview with HPERSSA HEROES JOURNAL, we bring you the details about the trending Athlete Lariba. 

Some years ago, her name was all over the place winning laurels for herself, her loved ones and her country Ghana. She has been very consistent with her achievements and has also remained very focused on trying to get to the apex of her career. 

 PROFILE

Sakat Lariba Juliana is her name. She was born on the 17th of July, 1996 in a village called Konkomada in the Upper East Region of Ghana in the Garu Tempane District. She attended a primary school in her village, Konkomada till she got to primary 5 where she left her village. Whilst in her village school, she was very active in Physical Education lessons every Friday in her school and eventually she got introduced to sports and for that matter athletics. From Konkomada, her coach moved her to Bolgatanga after he witnessed her performances in the Zonal Athletics Game where she really started running but she did not take it serious at all because she was naive and also afraid of travelling far from her village. She stayed with the Headmaster of Bolgatanga Senior High School who later became her manager. She completed Bolgatanga Senior High School (Big Boss) in 2018. Currently Miss Sakat Lariba Juliana is a Level 100 Physical Education (HPERS) student of the University of Education, Winneba.

She is one of the women in the world that has defied the odds that women are only good in the kitchen and as housewives. She has never had it on a silver platter at all since she started to do sports. At a point her family members successfully convinced her mother to stop her from doing sports because of her gender. She became confused as to whether to stop or pursue her dream especially when she lost the support of her family.

ACHIEVEMENTS  

She was selected to be part of the regional athletics team for the Upper East region in 2011 and that was when she started enjoying stardom within her area and gained the support of her mother when she got to know it was paying off. It took the intervention of her coach to educate her mother on the positive sides of the path she had chosen after he discovered her. The eye opener in her carrier was actually in 2012 when she had a race in Takoradi. She was surprised that she could come all the way from the Upper East region and run in Takoradi. There in Takoradi, she was the only athlete that had medals and a trophy within the Upper East regional team. The region placed third in the national games due to her performance. This became her breakthrough moment where she realized she can become the Lariba she is today and even aspire higher to greater heights in her carrier.

On her achievements, she represented Ghana in 2014 Commonwealth Games in London, went to Morocco for All African Games in the same year. From the basic level, she won every single race she took part in except those two international games mentioned earlier. She won the famous Milo Marathon as the youngest female athlete in 2011, 2012, 2013. There was no race in 2014 due to the outbreak of Ebola. In 2015 and 2016 she won the marathon again. She did not run the following two years thus 2017 and 2018 due to managerial problems. But in those years, she was busily running and winning regional competitions. Her last regional race was in Cape Coast 2017 where she won for herself seven gold medals in all the races she took part. She is also very good in other races such as 4x100m, 4x400m, 400m,800m aside her usual long distance races. This year 2021, she has been very busy competing and winning here in Ghana and abroad. She won gold in the ECOWAS games held in Nigeria, the Asante Akyem Marathon and also in a competition organized by the Ghana Armed Forces at the Elwak Sports Stadium recently. She is the first Ghanaian lady to run and win a 10,000-meter race, she did a full marathon (41. 2 km) which had the Kenyans who are noted for running and winning long distance races here in GHANA in 2014 which she won and was awarded with a car.

When asked about her greatest motivator, Lariba said, 

“I’m a strong Christian and so my secret weapons are God, prayer and training”. Her greatest dream and wish is to take part in the Olympics and the Diamond league and win gold for Ghana. That is why she prays and train a lot.

Lariba really do not have a role model. She is her own role model but she loves Usain Bolt because to her their stories seem to be alike. Her main challenge is combining academics and running. She tries so hard not to be the last in class. 

She gave her final words as “I pray that the young and upcoming ones get into the right hands and heed to good counsel. Above all they should rely on GOD”. 

Let’s come together and acknowledge heroes and heroines like Lariba. 

Source: HPERSSA HEROES JOURNAL