Pool: Uganda's title defence in tatters

By Faith Kiai

The Pool Cranes' title defence took a huge hit on Wednesday evening at the All Africa Pool Championships in Zimbabwe.

The men opened their account with a devastating 15-10 loss to hosts Zimbabwe, which they blamed on poorly levelled tables.

"Our main hindrance was that the tables were not levelled and the cloth was old, we ended up losing the game, which was against the host Zimbabwe," said national team coach Bob Menani.

Menani also confirmed that the tables had been changed which is why the men improved greatly to defeat Zambia by 13-12 later that afternoon.

The women on the other hand started fabulously against Zimbabwe with a 20-5 victory only to lose by 10-15 against favourites South Africa.

Due to the fact that both teams defeated Zimbabwe this match was expected to be the gold medal match and the Ugandans failed to recapture their morning form in the evening.

With the clean score card South Africa's men and women are firmly in pole position to dethrone Uganda as the best pool team on the continent.

The Ugandans can now firmly focus all their attention on the individual titles where South African duo Elzette Koen and Wetsi Morake are the defending champions in the men and the women's categories respectively.

Results

Men

Uganda 10 Zimbabwe 15

SA 20 Zimbabwe 5

Uganda 13 Zambia 12

Women

SA 20 Zimbabwe 5

Uganda 20 Zimbabwe 5

SA 15 Uganda 10