From their latest outing at the 2022 World Swimming (25m-short course) Championship in Melbourne, Australia to the Commonwealth Games and the regional CANA championships among others, the national swimmers made great strides in the pool; pointing to a brighter future.

Siblings Kirabo Namutebi and Tendo Mukalazi who were fresh from a FINA training camp in Russia set the pace in April, leading the way at the CANA Zone IV Championships in Zambia.

Katemba in action

Kirabo won 3 gold and one silver as Mukalazi picked one gold and one silver to lead the cast that included; Karimah Katemba, Paloma Kirabo, and Adnan Kabuye who also won medals alongside masters’ swimmers Donald Rukare, Peter Ssebanakitta, Patience Birungi, and Godfrey Kizza.

From then on several national records were re-written over the year most notable among them was US-based Jesse Ssengonzi’s 51.90 in the 100m butterfly achieved from Australia where he also lowered his 50m butterfly personal best to 23.79.

Namutebi

He represented alongside Tara Naluwooza aka Kisawuzi and Kirabo Namutebi with the former producing an impressive 27.71 in the 50m fly. Namutebi made 32.47 in the 50m breast.

Naluwooza had also represented at the World Junior Swimming Championships in Peru alongside Swagia Mubiru, Joshua Lumonya, and Steve Magera. Namutebi missed out on this because of her busy schedule in what would be her last junior event.

But this happened just after she had clocked 26.01 in the 50m freestyle to win silver (Uganda’s first seniors' medal) at the Africa Senior Championship in Tunisia. She had also claimed silver from the 50m freestyle event at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkey where she represented alongside Tendo Mukalazi and Avice Meya.

But the big show in Konya was left for para swimmer Husnah Kukundakwe who after her Commonwealth Games debut in the 100m freestyle in the S9 class where she clocked 01:19.01, a time which was short of her national record of 01:18.59; bagged seven medals (three gold, three silver, and one bronze) in what was her best international outing ever.

She had earlier in March, scooped two bronze medals from the Para Swimming World Series in Italy.

Rashidah Najjuma was unstoppable in the East Africa University Games. Photos by Michael Nsubuga

The 15-year-old Aga Khan High School student clocked 01:29.66 in the 100m breaststroke to win bronze and also returned 01:18.59 in the 100m freestyle event to register new national records and personal bests in the two events.

Ahead of the Commonwealth Games, four Ugandan swimmers, swimmers that included Olympian Kirabo Namutebi and his elder brother Tendo Mukalazi, Adnan Kabuye and Karimah Katemba had impressed at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest in June.

At the championship, Mukalazi set a new national 50m breaststroke record after clocking 30.03, while for the second time at a world championship event, Namutebi won her heat when she clocked 26.26 in the 50m freestyle but finished 36th out of 82 participants overall. Namutebi also posted 35.12 in the 50m breaststroke.

Avice Meya also warmed up for the Commonwealth Games with a 1:03.16 in the 100m freestyle, and a 32.94 (50m back) in Budapest while Adnan Kabuye made 29.65 in the 50m backstroke as well as venturing in the 5km Open Water competition alongside Karimah Katemba.

The Ugandans also competed in the 4x100 relay, posting a new mixed freestyle relay time of 3:56.04 improving the previous record last posted in Gwangju by Meya, Mukalazi, Atuhaire Ambala, and Selina Katumba by 44.05 seconds.

In Birmingham, Uganda’s representatives; Ambala Ogola Atuhaire, Avice Meya, Kirabo Namutebi, and Tendo Mukalazi clocked 3:51.75 in the 4x100m freestyle relay to set a new national record over the distance. They improved the previous one set during the 19th FINA World Championships Budapest 2022 in June; by Tendo Mukalazi, Kirabo Namutebi, Adnan Kabuye, and Karimah Katemba, by 4.29 seconds.

Atuhaire opened his games debut with a ‘win’, topping Heat-1 of the 100m backstroke event with a new national record of 1:01.68. Meya also set a new 100m backstroke national record of 1:10.35 in coming first in Heat-1 of the races. Tendo Mukalazi was not left out as he rewrote his 100m freestyle record when he clocked 52.91, improving his previous one of 53.18 set during the African Championship in Ghana 2021. Earlier, Namutebi had posted 33.87 in the 50m breaststroke, finishing 7th in one of the heats but missed qualifying for the semi-finals by 69 microseconds. In her specialty, the 50m freestyle she could only finish 20th overall out of 68 swimmers. Her time was 2.23 short of making the semis and away from Australian Jack Shayna who topped the heat and with the leading time overall.

Namutebi ended the year by competing in the invitational Russian Federation Solidarity Games Championship where she was invited alongside the other swimmers that she was with for the same intake camp at the FINA training camp in Russia. She made 25.84 in the 50m freestyle race, a new national record over the distance.

In the CANA Zone 3 championship in Tanzania in November, Ugandan swimmers recorded several personal bests at the 7th edition of the annual event.

Uganda’s 14-year-old female swimmer Tara Kisawuzi was the star for the Ugandans, winning 8 gold medals not only to win her category (13-14 years) but also help Uganda in finishing third overall after they amassed 2,521.50 points 

Other gold medalists included Zara Mbaga, John Kafumbe, and Charlotte Sanford.

Heer Usadadiya, Nathan Nsereko, Natalie Lutalo, Kafumbe, Paloma Kirabo, and Tyaba Kiggundu picked silver medals over several races just like Nathan Nsereko, Peyton Suubi, Ben Kaganda, Pendo Kaumi, Natalie Lutalo, Ampaire Namanya, Steve Magera, Jaden Mwase, and Paulsen Ssetumba who bagged bronze.

Uganda Masters swimmers Donald Rukare, Henry Kakooza, Alex Kateeba, Ezra Kalali, and Nana Nakiddu also produced golden performances in different races just like Peter Buvumbo and Olivier Nalwadda who managed bronze over several races.

On the local scene, the newly formed Gators Swim Club won the 7th edition of the USF National Age-Group Swim Championships at Greenhill Academy. on Sunday.

The Gators were inspired by siblings Tendo Mukalazi and Kirabo Namutebi who both collected 301 points.

Altona Swim Club’s Abigail Mwagale’s 39.21 in the 50m breaststroke; in the 11-12 year category, and Tara Kisawuzi's 37.35 over the same distance in the 13-14, both new national records; were some of the highlights in the event.

Rashidah Najjuma also starred in her territory when she won 12 gold as Ndejje University dominated in the pool during the East Africa University Games.

Two-time Olympic Ugandan swimmer Jamila Lunkuse was elected to the FINA Athletes Committee which features representatives from all six aquatics disciplines and FINA’s six regions.

The former Seals Swim Club athlete who also serves on the Uganda Swimming Federation (USF) executive as a committee member will serve on the twenty-man committee, as one of the nine swimmers’ representatives; following a ceremony on the sidelines of the 19th FINA World Championships Budapest 2022.

The year under review is also when FINA president Husain Al-Musallam promised to continue giving out swimming scholarships to swimmers to prepare and help them qualify for major championships like the Olympics and the world championships, following his visit earlier in the year. He also promised to fund the construction of a 25m pool for the USF.

His delegation included FINA vice president and CANA president Sam Ramasamy, FINA CEO Brent Nowicki, Executive Assistant to FINA president El Chaykh Ahmad Al Saabi, Executive Assistant to FINA Executive Director Nikolaus Schonfeldt and World Olympic Swimming Champions Ferry Weertman, and Ranomi Kromowidjojo.

A new pool, the Elite Swim and Gym in Ntinda, built by swimmer Heer Usadadiya’s family was unveiled in December to add to the number of privately owned facilities in the country.