Athlete Refugee Team: Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga's journey

This feature is the third in a five-part series sharing the stories of refugee athletes Farida Abaroge, Seyd Taha Ghafari, Omar Hassan, Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga and Seyfu Jamaal Tahir as they seek selection to the Athlete Refugee Team (ART) at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25. 

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As a child, Emmanuel Kiruhura Ntagunga fled war in Congo, walking up to 90 kilometres a day in search of safety. 

His path led him through Uganda and into Kenya, where he found more than just refuge. He found running again with the Athlete Refugee Team, and met athletes like Ruth Chepngetich and Hellen Obiri who helped shift his mindset. 

Now living in Norway with his family, Ntagunga’s story is one of resilience, self belief and the power of sport to change lives.

“No peace, no life. That’s why I decided to leave my country and go to find peace in another country,” Ntagunga says.

“I was trying to participate in a race and I was given Tegla Loroupe’s contact and she said to me: ‘If you are a runner, who can stop you to run?’ I remember in 2018, Hellen Obiri told me: ‘Emmanuel, you know you can run better than this group of people.’ ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Because how I see you, you are a focused man.’ Imagine, I started in a group and I couldn’t run, two months later I was faster than Obiri.

“Everything is possible, and nothing can happen without you changing. Number one, it’s for you to change, to decide and to focus. It’s how the Kenyan athletes changed my mind.

“No one is limited.”

View the full video feature on World Athletics Watch.

Video features on Farida Abaroge and Seyfu Jamaal Tahir will be published on World Athletics Watch during the next few weeks. The features on Omar Hassan and Seyd Taha Ghafari are already available.

Interview and video production by Christel Saneh for World Athletics