Uganda concluded the 19th edition of the International Schools Sports Federation (ISF) U-18 games in Normandy region in France with 2 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze for a total of 7 medals.
Friday May 20 was the last day for Uganda’s hopes for more gold in athletics in the senior ISF games after taking part for only the second time, after all other three disciplines of basketball, table tennis and swimming had ended with no accolade.
However, the expected gold medals didn’t come by as Christine Nyawere and Loice Chekwemoi tumbled on the turf in their respective 400m and 1500m finals on a cold breezing morning in Caen and they could not match the conditions. First it was Nyawere in the 400m final and with the sprinter having started well, it became so difficult for her on the 200m bend, as she started limping off holding her lower abdomen showing a lot of pain and the time she came to the line, she was almost walking in pain and lost.
She was the rushed off for medication and this eliminated her from the 200m final, robbing Uganda a would be silverware. In the 1500m final too, hopeful Loice Chekwemoi who was the favourite, started falling off the front in the last lap but persisted to finish 7th with a devastating 4:37:76, a race won by Turkey’s Ayya Fidanogru on 4:25.78 while India’s Laxita Vinod took silver on 4:27.38 and Kazakhstan’s Nurmamet Akkayan settled for bronze at 4:27:74.Uganda’s two bronze of the day came from Victor Chekwemoi who made a run of his life in the most competitive 1500m final, after beating three opponents on the final 100m stretch to come home 3rd on 3:57.67 minutes, behind France’s Yanis Mouline who took silver on 3:57.57 with Spain’s Felix Ronaldo winning gold with a 3:57:16 finish.
Uganda again won the Medley long relay bronze as the quartet of Fred Ambayo, Rajab Ibrahim, Dominic Klop and Ryamong Omara put up a good show to finish 3rd position in the seemingly teasing 2oom 4oom, 600m and 800m run, but the girls’ team of Christine Nyawere, Priscilla Akello, Financia Chekwemoi and Maurine Chebet that had finished 2nd was disqualified for a falt exchange of the button.
With these medals; 2 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze, Uganda finished 7th overall and 1st in Africa, a performance USSSA president and Leader of Delegation Patrick Okanya commended
“We are extremely happy for the performance because it has not been an easy go. There are many countries here that prepared enough and came but have gone back empty handed. Who are we to have have this and we don’t cerebrate? We thank Government for the support to USSSA and enabling these kids to come and expose their talents on the globe. We thank the minister of Education Mama Janet Kataaha Museveni and all her junior ministers for the support. The commissioners and the NCS have been here and this shows the support that we have. The parents, the coaches and the athletes in all the 5 disciplines that we took part in. We shall keep improving in every outing that we shall take part in,” Okanya said
National Council of Sports (NCS) general secretary Dr Patrick Ogwel was equally thankful.
“I am happy to note that Uganda is endowed with talent and it’s now time for government to invest more in our athletes especially in the education system which to me would be the foundation. And I want to encourage all our sports leaders especially the federation heads to also invest in the foundation level by arranging competitions for the juniors so they identify the best athletes,” Ogwel said.Adding, “I am surely very excited and it gives me the prestige to say that as council, we look forward to prioritize and ensure that Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) and all other educational institutions games at regional and continental championships, Uganda makes appearance,”
Ogwel’s promises matched with Samia-Bugwe central MP and vice chairman of budget committee of Uganda parliament Dennis Nyangweso, who is also in France on the same fact finding mission.
“I am here on the delegation of my chairman and its true that sports has not been funded so well, but from 2000 we can talk of some funding from government. I have interacted with different delegations here finding out how they do this. And I realize this calls for enough funding if we want to compete and I will appeal to the government of Uganda to increase the budgeting for sports, the schools games must be supported through adequate budget,” Nyangweso said
And Sam Kuloba, the commissioner secondary education, ministry of education and sports was not different.
“We are thankful to everyone that has enabled this great performance in all the disciplines though we only managed medals in athletics. But this is a good performance and the ministry is happy and Uganda is happy. As a ministry we are going to look at ways on how we can inject more money at this level of talent identification because we now rwalise that we have the potential of competing at a higher junior level like this,” Kuloba said
The games ended yesterday and teams will be traveling back to their respective countries starting tomorrow Sunday morning.
Main Photo: Uganda athletics team in joy with their medals