She Cranes are new African netball champions

AFRICAN NETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Thursday results

Uganda 67 Zambia 50

Malawi 71 Botswana 39

Zimbabwe 68 Namibia 37

The She Cranes will go into the Africa Netball Championship history as the first host nation to win the continental event unbeaten.

Uganda beat Zambia 67-50 in their last fixture at the six-day event to win their maiden title at the biennial event that ended at the indoor arena, Lugogo.

It was surely a team effort as all the players exhibited professionalism in their five-fixture matches when they beat Botswana, Malawi, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

But in the final encounter, Uganda's dependable shooter Peace Proscovia, who plays professional at Loughborough Lightning in England, was the highlight of the day as they beat Zambia by six goals at the end of the first quarter.

Later She Cranes attacking combination of Peace Proscovia and Hadijah Nakabuye, and defenders Florence Nanyonga and Lillian Ajio proved too strong for the Zambians as the home team extended their lead to 37-24 at half time.

Head coach Vincent Kiwanuka later replaced the shooters with Martha Soigi and Racheal Nanyonga respectively and defenders Nanyonga and Ajio with Stella Oyella and Stella Nanfuka respectively.

Center player Desire Obua also replaced Betty Kizza in the midfield as the She Cranes continued to push for goals, scoring 52-35 in the third quarter before taking a 17-goal lead at the final whistle.

Proscovia scored 29 goals, Soigi 17, Nanyonga 13 while Nakabuye added eight goals for the victors.

Helen Banda and Lucy Jere scored 35 and 15 consolation goals respectively for the Zambian side.

Uganda had earlier thumped Botswana 62-29, beaten Malawi 66-43, Namibia (69-31) and Zimbabwe 61-45 to finish with 10 points at the top of the table.

Meanwhile Africa's second-best side, Malawi and Zimbabwe settled for second and third positions with eight and  six points respectively.

Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga graced the awards ceremony and applauded the She Cranes for the tremendous work that steered them to the title.


Table standings

Uganda           10pts

Malawi            8

Zimbabwe       6

Zambia            4

Botswana        2

Namibia           0