Table tennis’ Bulaga picks silver at the Special Olympics World Games

Special Olympics Uganda table tennis player Cleopatra Rhabaha Bulaga and the seven-a-side football team picked silver medals as the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin ended on Sunday.

Bulaga fell to Special Olympics China’s Liu Linglin in the final of the U17 D3 category to win the silver in the event where SO Kyrgyz Republic’s Zaida Bazarbekova and SO Mongolia’s Namuuntsetseg Bayarsaikhan finished third and fourth respectively.

Bulaga had beaten Bazarbekova and Namuuntsetseg in straight sets, winning 3-0 against each before she fell to Liu.

Uganda’s other representative in table tennis Sharif Mugerwa managed fourth place behind Lebanon’s Abdallah Khalifeh, China’s Jian Chen, and Honduras’ Miguel Varela Avila who took gold, silver, and bronze respectively.

In football, Uganda’s team that featured in the M2 category fell 9-0 to Germany-1 in the final to settle for silver.  They had in the semis eliminated Germany-1 after a 4-0 win while Germany-1 had walloped Switzerland 25-0.

On their way to the final, Uganda who fielded Moses Ssenyonga, Amjad Mawanda, Joshua Munanura, Ibrahim Businge, Michael Ndawula, Gerald Arobe, and Jacob Eriya in many of the games had drawn 2-2 with Hong Kong, lost 3-0 to Ireland, before they hammered Switzerland 10-2 in the preliminaries to storm the semis.

The rest of the team members included Mathias Kiiza, Joseph Alumansi, Cyrus Sseruwagi, and Danny Mutungi. Uganda's outstanding players in the tournament included captain Joshua Munanura and Jacob Eliya who scored 5 goals each in the tournament, where Joseph Alumansi managed four.

Special Olympics Germany-2 finished third overall while Switzerland and New Zealand finished fourth and fifth respectively.

The silver medals were an addition to the two gold medals that swimmer Larry Feni bagged earlier from the 50m breaststroke and 25m freestyle races.

Uganda’s team was sponsored to the games by the National Council of Sports.