3x3 basketball comes to Kampala City Festival

Kampala City Festival 3x3 tournament 

Sport is coming to the Kampala City Festival and to pioneer the innovation, basketball.

The fifth edition of what is also known as the Kampala Carnival runs Saturday and Sunday and a sports event has been added to the wide menu of activities for the first time.

It will be in the form of a Three on Three (3x3) basketball tournament that will be staged on Parliamentary Avenue and will feature 10 teams on Friday. 

"Our hope is to make this 3x3 tournament so big that will eventually be admitted by FIBA as a 3x3 Challenger that can then attract teams from Mombasa or Kenya," explained tournament organiser Tom Ocamuringa during the official launch of the Festival at City Hall. 

The winning team will receive $400 or approximately sh1.4 million, which is more than adequate for what's hardly a day's work.

Three x Three games are snappy 10-minute contests played on half a court with three players a-side and one substitute per team, among other unique rules. 

"This kind of tournament is adequate for the Festival because 3x3 is street basketball and it will easily fit in the programme," added Pamoja Afriq's Ocamuringa. 

KCCA basketball head Henry Odongo hailed the advent of the 3x3 event, saying, "We want to make it quite big and we will invest what's necessary".