UOC to miss Rio 2016 targets

There may be less than 100 days to the Olympics but the Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) is still way short of its original target of athletes for the Brazil Games.

UOC chairman William Blick revealed during a presser at the UOC offices on Thursday that the plan was to improve upon the 16 athletes who represented the country at the London Games but thus far only 12 have secured qualification for Brazil.

"Our target was to have between 20 to 25 athletes for the Brazil Games and the good thing is we still have time to qualify more".

Technically, over 30 athletes are still in contention for Rio qualification but the reality is only a small fraction will make it, for reasons both financial and sporting.

Consequently, the general outlook for the Brazil Games is one of cautious optimism, with UOC officials expecting the limited investment in preparations to affect the performance of Uganda's athletes in Rio.

Expectations are expectedly low.

"Qualifying athletes is an achievement in itself because the Olympics attract the best from the world," said Team Uganda's Chef De Mission at the upcoming Games Ambrose Tashobya.

"We hope that the (Olympics) team will represent the country well in Uganda and we pray we win some medals".