Bodybuilder Byekwaso hungrier for more success

Sep 14, 2015

Ivan Byekwaso is fresh from winning the INBA Mr. Universe Bodybuilding Championship in Texas, USA.


By Michael Nsubuga

After winning the International Body Building Association (INBA) Mr. Universe Bodybuilding Championship in Texas last week, Uganda’s body building champion Ivan Byekwaso is even hungrier for more success.

Byekwaso, who returned to a hero’s welcome at Entebbe from the championship on Saturday, feels this was just the beginning of more victories to come.

Hundreds of people including the Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija, sports commissioner Omara Apitta, a congregation from ETM church and other body builders and sportsmen received the athlete amid ululations and whistling at the airport.

In the company of his sponsor Jackson Pemba, Byekwaso was ushered out through the VIP lounge before he was mobbed by journalists and fans in equal measure.

“Champion, champion, God is great,” they shouted before minister Kasaija officially welcomed him back and promised that government will soon start paying more attention to sports as the economy grows.
 

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Ivan Byekwaso was mobbed by journalists and fans at Entbbe airport. (Credit: Michael Nsubuga)


 

 

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Finance minister Matia Kasaija speaks to the press upon the arrival of Byekwaso. (Credit: Michael Nsubuga)
 

 

 

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“When the country is stable many things can be achieved; this is part of our harvest from the security and stability. But I would like to advise those with talents to develop them as sports is now lucrative business,” Kasaija said.

“I told you before I left that I don’t make empty promises and that I was going to come back with gold; my role now is to market Uganda at the world stage just like athletes Inzikuru, Kipsiro and Kiprotich and I’m going to do it through body building,” Byekwaso said at Entebbe.

“I want to win two more world championships and see what happens thereafter; I’m now going to prepare for the World Cup and the Natural Olympia which is due in November in the US. I want to thank my sponsors Pemba Sports Africa for helping me to achieve this,” Byekwaso stated before he was driven off in a convoy of shouting and jubilating fans.

Competing in the short men (175cm) category, Byekwaso beat 36 contestants who qualified to compete in the annual championship, to the gold at only his second time of trying.

Last year, Byekwaso, 32, won a bronze at the INBA Natural Body Building Olympiad in San Diego in November, adding to an earlier silver medal he won at the World Championships in Slovakia in June.
 

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