OPINION:Battle over kits is utterly disgraceful
Aug 01, 2010
THE 17th Africa Senior Athletics Championships ended yesterday with Uganda getting a gold medal in the triple jump and silver in the 10000m.
By William Muwonge
Sub-Editor
THE 17th Africa Senior Athletics Championships ended yesterday with Uganda getting a gold medal in the triple jump and silver in the 10000m.
Sarah Nambawa won the gold and Moses Kipsiro the silver but his bid for double success collapsed after he failed to shine in his favourite 5000m race as the seven-day show ended in Nairobi.
The race for medals came down to Nambawa and Kipsiro after the dismal display by their colleagues including Benjamin Kiplagat.
Kiplagat, a former world junior bronze medalist, ran his worst race in over five years to finish fifth in the 3000m steeplechase final.
Justine Bayigga, an equally experienced runner, failed to live up to expectations in the 400m, then reached the 200m final but again a medal eluded her.
So Kipsiro, who had cruised to gold in the 10000m and bronze over the 5000m distance at the 2006 edition, and Nambawa faced the burden of redeeming Uganda.
But Kipsiro was at the centre of a kits fiasco that pitted the team officials and the athletes. A potentially embarrassing situation saw Kipsiro threaten to quit the 5000m race, unhappy that the team had been denied uniforms yet the officials had them.
It took the intervention of Uganda Athletics Federation chief Dominic Otucet for Kipsiro to change his mind.
The kits issue shows that making a trip that in Ugandan sports is traditionally associated with other benefits, was a key concern for the officials while the athletes’ welfare and performance was a secondary matter.
Sub-Editor
THE 17th Africa Senior Athletics Championships ended yesterday with Uganda getting a gold medal in the triple jump and silver in the 10000m.
Sarah Nambawa won the gold and Moses Kipsiro the silver but his bid for double success collapsed after he failed to shine in his favourite 5000m race as the seven-day show ended in Nairobi.
The race for medals came down to Nambawa and Kipsiro after the dismal display by their colleagues including Benjamin Kiplagat.
Kiplagat, a former world junior bronze medalist, ran his worst race in over five years to finish fifth in the 3000m steeplechase final.
Justine Bayigga, an equally experienced runner, failed to live up to expectations in the 400m, then reached the 200m final but again a medal eluded her.
So Kipsiro, who had cruised to gold in the 10000m and bronze over the 5000m distance at the 2006 edition, and Nambawa faced the burden of redeeming Uganda.
But Kipsiro was at the centre of a kits fiasco that pitted the team officials and the athletes. A potentially embarrassing situation saw Kipsiro threaten to quit the 5000m race, unhappy that the team had been denied uniforms yet the officials had them.
It took the intervention of Uganda Athletics Federation chief Dominic Otucet for Kipsiro to change his mind.
The kits issue shows that making a trip that in Ugandan sports is traditionally associated with other benefits, was a key concern for the officials while the athletes’ welfare and performance was a secondary matter.