Uganda at the Commonwealth games
UGANDA’s team leader at the XVIII Commonwealth Games has said his team’s priority will be to build a formidable outfit for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
LOUIS JADWONG IN MELBOURNE
UGANDA’s team leader at the XVIII Commonwealth Games has said his team’s priority will be to build a formidable outfit for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Medals, he insists, will just be a bonus.
Team manager Justin Ligyalingi said the decision to take Uganda’s youngest team to the Commonwealth Games was a deliberate policy to put the country back on world sports map. Uganda will participate in nine disciplines, four more than at Manchester 2002, making it the largest contingent the country has ever sent to the “Club Games.â€
“This is the youngest team to represent Uganda in these games. That shows you that everyone is using these games to prepare for the Olympics,†he stated soon after the team reached Australia on Saturday.
Fourteen-year-old table tennis player Amina Kibone (pictured, right) from Mbale is one of up to 20 of 49 athletes representing Uganda in Melbourne.
After decades of disorganisation at international competitions, the Uganda Olympic Committee and National Council of Sports have since the Abuja All Africa games in 2003 charged former teacher and coach Ligyalingi, 35, with the task of leading the country’s teams to major international competitions.
“I am just pleased by the average age of the entire side which is about 20 years only. The exposure these kids, and the equally young officials accompanying them will get, should give us a new crop of mature athletes in a few years,†he added.
With a World champion and world junior record holder in their ranks for the first time, it can only be that Ligyalingi is simply trying to lift the burden of expectation off his young team.
World 3000m steeplechase champion Dorcus Inzikuru will have nowhere to hide if she doesn’t take back gold to Kampala while Boniface Kiprop, the only man the Ethiopians fear today, could light up the 10000m final. This is a ‘members only’ competition for 71 nations, which means the Ethiopians will watch on television.
Boxing has produced 30 of Uganda’s 40 medals since the 1954 British Empire & Commonwealth Games and despite fielding a skeleton team of four, are sure bets to match the two medals in Manchester in 2000.
Featherweight Sharif Bogere, 18, has going into the games looked capable of following in the golden footsteps of Godfrey Nyakana and Justin Juuko in Auckland in 1990.
“He is the real kind who can handle any opponent,†veteran coach Dick Katende observed.
Action officially commences on Wednesday with the opening ceremony at the world famous Melbourne Cricket Ground.
UGANDA’s team leader at the XVIII Commonwealth Games has said his team’s priority will be to build a formidable outfit for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Medals, he insists, will just be a bonus.
Team manager Justin Ligyalingi said the decision to take Uganda’s youngest team to the Commonwealth Games was a deliberate policy to put the country back on world sports map. Uganda will participate in nine disciplines, four more than at Manchester 2002, making it the largest contingent the country has ever sent to the “Club Games.â€
“This is the youngest team to represent Uganda in these games. That shows you that everyone is using these games to prepare for the Olympics,†he stated soon after the team reached Australia on Saturday.
Fourteen-year-old table tennis player Amina Kibone (pictured, right) from Mbale is one of up to 20 of 49 athletes representing Uganda in Melbourne.
After decades of disorganisation at international competitions, the Uganda Olympic Committee and National Council of Sports have since the Abuja All Africa games in 2003 charged former teacher and coach Ligyalingi, 35, with the task of leading the country’s teams to major international competitions.
“I am just pleased by the average age of the entire side which is about 20 years only. The exposure these kids, and the equally young officials accompanying them will get, should give us a new crop of mature athletes in a few years,†he added.
With a World champion and world junior record holder in their ranks for the first time, it can only be that Ligyalingi is simply trying to lift the burden of expectation off his young team.
World 3000m steeplechase champion Dorcus Inzikuru will have nowhere to hide if she doesn’t take back gold to Kampala while Boniface Kiprop, the only man the Ethiopians fear today, could light up the 10000m final. This is a ‘members only’ competition for 71 nations, which means the Ethiopians will watch on television.
Boxing has produced 30 of Uganda’s 40 medals since the 1954 British Empire & Commonwealth Games and despite fielding a skeleton team of four, are sure bets to match the two medals in Manchester in 2000.
Featherweight Sharif Bogere, 18, has going into the games looked capable of following in the golden footsteps of Godfrey Nyakana and Justin Juuko in Auckland in 1990.
“He is the real kind who can handle any opponent,†veteran coach Dick Katende observed.
Action officially commences on Wednesday with the opening ceremony at the world famous Melbourne Cricket Ground.