Weightlifting 'hibernates' through 2000

Sydney blues ruined entire year By Silvano Kibuuka WEIGHTLIFTERS have been very silent for the year 2000 as compared to the past three years. The Uganda Amateur Weightlifting Association (UAWA) has organized only three events. They only managed to hold the Kasubi Bonanza in January, the Masuulita Club Championships in March and the national championships at Jinja in July. Most officials approached could not explain the quagmire though some of the lifters continue to blame the association for selfishness and lack of vision. The undoing at the All Africa Games by three of the Ugandan lifters who failed to qualifiy continued to haunt the athletes and officials through the year. Uganda was categorized among the countries to be considered for a wild card participation in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and also appeared to have a decent chance to qualify, but in the ends missed out on both. Ugandan lifters, Kassim Mulindwa, Moses Kimbowa and Harriet Namusoke finished sixth each in their individual categories in South Africa, three positions outside qualification mark. The wild card entry never surfaced and the season was ruined. Had the lifters got that wild card, perhaps they would have given the game a new highlight. UAWA leaders always kept the lifters on their tip toes expecting that they would be called for residential training from July, ahead of a trip to Adelaide for another international training programme for the Sydney Olympics. Nothing happened, thus creating more blues for the athletes who had switched to individual training at Nakivubo Gym with little guidance and support from UAWA. Former Olympiad, Ali Kavuma was in charge of the team, despite being dropped as national Coach since his return from the All Africa Games in South Africa. Kavuma had been blamed for the team's poor performance at the African event. After the international competition floop, UAWA tried another strategy to get some international exposure. This time it was the officials who traveled to Greece to compete for administrative posts in the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) annual congress that sat between December 8-9 at the Astir Palace Resort Hotel in Athens. President, and sole financier of UAWA for the past three years, Rogers Ddungu traveled to Greece with secretary Haji Salim Musoke for the elections. Ddungu went to compete as one of the six vice presidents for the IWF while Musoke stood for a post on the technical and jury committees. They both lost, and that was representative of the weightlifting season. But before December 31, UAWA officials have promised to hold the last and most prestigious event on the calendar, the national individual and club championships. The meet was due in November but was postponed. Officials claimed they wanted to give chance to the fasting Muslims and students because they constitute a majority of the participants. "We have introduced the game to youths and next target is to form clubs in schools", one official said recently. In November, some weightlifters switched to power lifting in order to grab chance of an international competition in Kenya. Ali Kavuma led the 5-man team to Nairobi where Uganda finished second out of three countries. Overall winners of events in 2000: 1.The Kasubi Bonanza– Kasubi Physique 2.Masuulita Club championships – Black Monster of Jinja 3.The first national championships– Black Monster of Jinja Ends