ARC Champion Yasin Nasser headlines Real Stars September Awards

There have been no celebrations yet for MOIL Rally Team’s crew of Yasin Nasser/Ali Katumba, who last month won the 2025 African Rally Championship in Morogoro, Tanzania, in dramatic fashion.

The Ugandan crew in a Ford Fiesta R2 edged Kenyan Samman Vohra to the championship by a point in the last event of the championship, which was anyone’s to take with the top three crews all in contention.

“Until now, it hasn’t sunk in that we do have the title with us. By the time we finished that event, everybody was congratulating us, but it remained like a dream that this thing had happened,” Nasser said after he received the September Fortebet Real Stars Award.

“It is really hard, but it is true that it is with us now. Maybe it will hit us hard by the time we are at the FIA Awards in December.

L-R: Seated: Jude Colour Solutions' Judith Juliet Nabuule, Fortebet's Assistant Media Manager Resty Mbatidde Namugema and Angel Ainemani pose with Real Stars Awards' Isac Mukasa, Aminah Kakande, Ali Kavuma and Yasin Nasser, October 7, 2025. Photo by Michael Nsubuga

“It has been a very long journey since we started in 2015 because at first it looked like a joke until we won our first local championship in 2019 before we finished second overall in the 2021 ARC tail ender in South Africa. So, we kept trying and lucky enough our prayers were answered this year and the championship returns to Uganda after 26 years,” Nasser stated.

“It has not been easy because you need a lot of finances and hard work and so on behalf of the crew, I would like to thank ours sponsors MOIL and our families for the support, and I thank Fortebet for the recognition.”

“We didn’t have a good start at the WRC event in Naivasha because we had some issues on the first day and could not complete the full day, but luckily enough, we were able to finish the event in third position overall.

“We proceeded well in the Pearl of Africa, Rwanda and Burundi, before we went to Tanzania, which was the last ARC event, and we managed to win the championship with one point. Not all events are easy; each rally needs technical expertise, with the driver and his navigator making sure that the car remains on the road and ensuring that the car is well prepared.

“We didn’t expect to win because it didn’t come easy because by the time we headed to Morogoro we were ahead by eight points but the competition was going to be very tough. It was all about calculations in play then.

“If Samman Vohra of Kenya finishes first, then we must finish second. If he finishes second, then we must finish third. So those were the calculations until Karin Patel and Ahmed joined the group which meant the calculations had to change and the game-plan had to change, and work out in a different manner.

“For us then it was all about maintaining the position and keep the car very clean and we kept it beyond the road full time and maintained fourth position from the start to the end,” Nasser stated.

Two-time Olympian and veteran national weightlifter and coach Ali Kavuma who competed at the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics in Korea and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, US was also handed a lifetime achievers award at the function held at Lazio Restaurant in Kololo. Kavuma was also grateful for the recognition before he urged upcoming athletes to maintain their discipline as well as to the government to provide a training facility for the sport.

“I would urge all athletes to maintain their discipline because if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t be here. I’m a two-time Olympian; I also competed at the Commonwealth Games and at the African Games meaning I went through all levels. I coached internationally and on the local scene, so I have seen it all,” Kavuma, who now works as the chairman technical committee of the Uganda Weighlifting Federation, stated.

“We need training facilities for the sport and I would like the government through the NCS and the UOC to ensure they secure a place either at Nakivubo or Namboole to ensure we get a platform for training because it is necessary, otherwise the team trains in the open under tree shade which is not good.

Kavuma who coached from 199-2003 noted that the sport had declined but is now picking up with the likes of Davis Niyoyita still keeping the candle burning. He thanked the awards sponsors and the press for promoting the sport.

The other monthly winners that were recognized included Vipers Mukundane who was represented by Angel Ainemani. He scored a crucial away goal against the African Stars of Namibia and played a vital role as they won the return leg 1-0 to qualify for the second round on a 2-0 aggregate in the CAF Champions League.

Boxer Hamza Kakande “King Kong” who won the British Commonwealth Silver Super Welter weight title against Briton Kevin Reavell was also recognized. He stopped his opponent in the 9th round of their super-welterweight fight in the UK taking his record to 13 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw. He was represented by his wife Aminah Kakande.