Good to Great | Oboya's New Beginning

Bendere Oboya’s immense talent is obvious. Her ability to effortlessly glide around one of athletics’ most grueling events is mesmorising, but casually loping over finish lines of 400m races across the globe has always left one pressing question – how fast could she run 800m?

It’s a question that is set to be answered at the Adelaide Invitational on Saturday, with Oboya primed to make her 800m debut in a stacked field after moving her life to Melbourne in search of greatness.

“I had to get used to everything being so different when moving to Melbourne. I had a new training group, a new coach and a new place to live,” she said.

“I see myself as so much more competitive in the 800m, I have never run one but that’s how much I believe in myself. I definitely see myself being near the top of the world, maybe not straight away but eventually.”

The move fueled by self-belief and an unrelenting drive to be one of the world’s best sees Oboya become the first female member of Justin Rinaldi’s Fast8TrackClub, headlined by the likes of Peter Bol, Jeff Riseley and Joseph Deng.

“I wanted to join a group where everyone wants to be the best in the world – and I’ve done that. You come to training and do the work, and you know you are going to slowly get something out of it,” she said.

Possessing a 400m personal best of 51.21 to sit as the eighth fastest Australian woman of all time at only 21-years-old, Oboya has made three consecutive national teams at the Commonwealth Games, World Athletics Championships as Olympic Games – but it was time spent reflecting during quarantine that brought Oboya to a blunt conclusion:

“I was really honest with myself with the 400m, I thought that 50 seconds could happen, but I couldn’t see myself running 49 seconds and being competitive internationally,” she said.

“I look at how crazy the 800m is both internationally and in Australia, and I’m really excited to join that bunch.”

Many may not understand why Oboya is eager to leave an event that she has dominated nationally for the best part of four years, winning 31 of her last 32 domestic races – but the Australian is determined to leave what is comfortable and safe to pursue international success.

“My main goal right now is to learn how to transition. I don’t want all my races to be learning curves, after the first few races I want to be like ‘hey, let’s go’ – I don’t want to spend the whole 2022 calling the 800m a learning curve,” she said.

Maintaining her 400m prowess with speed work once a week, Oboya says 400m hit-outs remain likely in 2022, but she concedes that her focus has shifted to the two-lap event – with the first challenge being to not run too fast on the first lap.

“I still have to learn the craft of 800m running, I’ve been watching lots of videos. I’m excited to see how I’m going to run my own 800m, because everyone runs it so differently,” she said.

Entering one of Australia’s hottest events domestically with current national record holder Catriona Bisset leading the charge, Oboya is keeping her cards close to her chest ahead of Saturday’s debut – simply calling the encounter a “guessing game”.

“I’m not going to limit myself, but I have goals and times that I want to run,” she said.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 6/02/2022