Publication date: Wednesday, 30th July, 2008
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Serugo |
By Norman Katende
in Beijing
Discipline: Boxing, light fly
Highest achievement: World Military Games gold medallist
FIGHTERS take to the sweet science to achieve something but Ronald Serugo simply took to boxing in order to beat up someone.
“I had been doing tae kwondo and I thought it was the best defence I had. Once, a group of friends and I were waylaid by rowdy youth in Old Kampala who beat us up. Among the youth were some boxers and they were far stronger than we. I took up boxing for that reason,” Serugo narrates.
That turnaround was not entirely surprising.
Serugo’s father was a boxer and had always encouraged his son to take up the sport. He had refused — until that fateful day.
“I do not regret the decision I took. It has made me happy and I’m close to achieving my dream of being a world champion. I’ve always craved for that,” he says.
It did not take long for Serugo to realize that boxing was ill-suited for the original purpose he had taken to it, revenge.
Instead, he was taught the virtues of discipline, concentration, self-esteem and self-control.
“When I’d just started serious training, I was taught that discipline was part of the package if I was to achieve anything,” Serugo reflects. “One of my tutors called Mageni used to tell me to change my attitude, and I did.”
It is this focus that ensured Serugo did not participate at the World Boxing Championships in Chicago last year, infamous for the three Ugandan boxers who abandoned camp.
“When I talked to my father, he advised me to first complete my studies. He had just paid sh0.75m for my school fees and an extra sh0.25m. He is not a rich man. I could not let him down and I decided to forfeit the trip.”
Serugo’s start in amateur boxing was inauspicious, but thanks to the endurance training of tae kwondo, he ground out.
It was at the now defunct Police Club that he was given an opportunity to take part in a “suicide” (friendly) encounter after the coaches realized that he possessed talent.
Serugo lost at the All Africa Games in Algeria last year and believes that experience enriched him –– and ultimately enabled him fight his way to the Olympics in the Namibia leg of the qualifiers.
Serugo’s future target is to first finish his studies and then take on professional boxing, but for now, simply winning an Olympic medal will do — and not just any medal, but gold.
“The coach (Jimenez Gonzales) has confidence in me. I do not want to disappoint him.”
And so does the nation, which explains why Serugo was named the captain of Uganda’s Olympic team.
Uganda’s light flyweight jinx
Ronald Serugo will make a first if he wins a medal in the light flyweight category in Beijing. Boxing has won Uganda more medals (three) but none from this weight. Douglas Ogada (1968) did not make it past the preliminaries.
In 1972, James Odwori made it to the quarter-finals but lost. Venostus Ochira (1976) also failed while Charles Lubulwa in the 1980 Games stopped at the last 8. William Bagonza lost at the quarters via a 5-0 judge’s verdict in 1984.
He was the last boxer to beat the preliminaries in the category with Fred Muteweta (1988), Sande Kizito (2000) and Jolly Katongole (2004) all falling at first hurdle.
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