UOC to focus on youth development
Apr 19, 2017
“We want to focus on building young athletes so that we have a number competing in the youth games."
PIC: UOC president William Blick said they intend to target youth. (Credit: Johnson Were)
KAMPALA - The Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) executive says it will focus on youth development and optimising the use of the Olympic Solidarity Fund for training in its four-year term.
UOC president William Blick told New Vision that only a handful of athletes benefited from this fund in last two years, which reduced Uganda's chances of winning medals in Olympics and Commonwealth Games.
"We want to focus on building young athletes so that we have a bigger number competing in the youth games as we prepare them for the Commonwealth Games and Olympics," he said.
"We have trained over 600 officials from different federations as a way of capacity building and we hope these officials will help us in identifying these young talents to fill the gap left by the seniors."
He said they will optimise the use of the Olympic Solidarity Fund by having more athletes access this fund for elite training in preparation of the Commonwealth Games and Olympics.
Blick however added that there is a big challenge of having a small elite pool of athletes and also poor relationship with government in joint investment in sports.