The Pocket Run was not born from a medal, a title, or a finish line. It was born in Rwanda.
From Ajax. Olympian. Canadian National Champion.
The Pocket Run was not born from a medal, a title, or a finish line.
It was born in Rwanda.
In November 2025, Duan traveled there as a Right To Play Ambassador. Not as a tourist, but as someone who wanted to understand what sport actually means to children who need it most. What he found changed the way he saw everything.
He saw children light up through play. He saw confidence build in classrooms and schoolyards. He saw how movement could give a child something that no curriculum could teach: the belief that their future could be bigger than their circumstances.
That experience stayed with him on the flight home.
The Pocket Run 5K is his answer to that trip. A race in the city that raised him, built to send something back to the children who inspired him.
"When a child is given space to play, they are also given space to believe." — Duan Asemota
Right To Play has been in Rwanda for over twenty years. As of 2023, their programs reach over 90,000 children across 312 schools. What Duan saw in Ruhango was not a charity model. It was children building, coding, and creating solutions to real problems in their own communities.
The program that made it undeniable was Plug in Play. Coding. Robotics. Engineering. Students as young as ten presenting things they built with their own hands. The funding is limited. Not every school has access. That gap is what this race is closing. Net proceeds support Right To Play's work in Rwanda.
"A ten-year-old girl built a hospital with an irrigation system attached. She did not read about it. She built it. That is what this run is for."
Right To Play has been operating in Rwanda since 2003. By 2023, it reached over 90,000 children across 312 schools. Duan went to Ruhango to see it for himself.
Source: Right To Play, Rwanda Country Profile (2023 data)
Independent editorial coverage from Canadian media.
The national running magazine covered The Pocket Run as an Athletics Ontario-sanctioned charity race with a 40-yard dash challenge, organized by Ajax-raised Olympian Duan Asemota.
Read the articleDurham Region's local paper reported on Asemota's 2026 Commonwealth Games silver medal and his journey from Ajax to Rwanda as a Right To Play Ambassador.
Read the article
Hustle and Heart Club · Episode 10
From being overlooked as an athlete to competing at the Olympic level, and now building The Pocket Run in Ajax for Right To Play Rwanda. Hosted by Nida Ateeq and Anna Sotnykova.
Media coverage is independent editorial. These publications are not sponsors or endorsers of The Pocket Run.