Linda Oseso back in hammer throwing

Seven years break from any sport is enough to make any athlete retire. But one Linda Oseso has taken the leap of faith and taken up the hammer again, seven years after taking a break.

“Last time I was here was for the trials in the 2014 Commonwealth games in Glasgow. It is interesting to be back again with the same team, similar people are still here competing and representing the country,” she said at her training base at the Kasarani stadium.

Oseso has a personal best of 60.80m from 10 years ago, and now she is focussed on improving that mark.  Linda was born in Kenya in 1990 and moved to the United States at the age of 11. She grew up in the Bay Area, California before moving to her current base in Seattle City, Washington DC State where she attended graduate school.   

Her initial sport was basketball and only landed in athletics by chance. During one of her gym sessions as a basketballer, she dropped an 11kgs dumbbell on her foot.

“Because of the long injury lay off, a friend of mine asked me if I was interested in doing track and field in the spring because basketball is a winter sport and I said yes! Why not?” she explains.

That is how she transitioned from basketball to shot put and discus. 

“I fell in love with shotput and discus, and eventually in my junior or senior year, a coach from the university UC Berkeley saw me at a track and field championship and told me, hey, I think you could be a good hammer thrower,” she continued.

Oseso was not sure about hammer throwing but was willing to learn. In 2007 and 2008, she got the opportunity to throw in college championships.

Her first competition for team Kenya was the Africa senior championships in 2010 in Nairobi where she finished fifth. She has since taken part in eight Africa championships, and winning the national championships four times. She then competed for Kenya until 2014, when she took a break after taking part in two Commonwealth Games competitions in Delhi India in 2010 and Glasgow, Scotland in 2014.

After her return, she has taken part in the Africa championship that was held in Mauritius in June 2022. This she says was to gauge herself ahead of the Commonwealth games.

 “My target (at the Commonwealth games) is to do my best. I want to come out and represent the country well; im excited and honoured to be here and I thank Athletics Kenya and the ministry of sports for the opportunity to represent the country.”