Women's sport has evolved since Independence

As Uganda celebrated her 58th independence anniversary, there were so many achievements to be proud of. There was also a need to celebrate those that have made a lot of sacrifices for sports over the years.

It was thus not surprising that the sports fraternity took this day to honour, appreciate and acknowledge the sportsmen and women that have risen our flag high in various disciplines.

For this particular column, I will focus on the contributions made by women because they deserve my utmost respect.

The She Cranes netball team is by far Uganda's best women sports team. In 1979, they made their debut at the World Netball Championships held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Having missed out on the next eight editions, they bounced back with two World Cup appearances in 2015 (Australia) and 2019 (Liverpool).

The success of the netball teams in the 1970s inspired many women to venture into other sports disciplines such as volleyball and basketball. It's against this background that Kampala Amateur Volleyball Club (KAVC) came into existence, that basketball teams such as Lady Bucks and A1 Challenge were established.

You can not talk about women's football without mentioning the immense contributions of the late Rebecca Kazibwe.

Kazibwe commonly referred to as ‘Mama Becca' by football enthusiasts was not only influential in Ugandan football, but also admired by every young girl that had a passion for the game.

If you look at athletics, the contributions of Dorcus Inzikuru cannot be ignored.

In 2005, at the World Championships, in Helsinki, Finland, Inzikuru ended Uganda's 33-year wait for an athletics world title, winning the inaugural women's 3000m steeplechase event.

She also won Gold at the Commonwealth Games in the same event in 2006.

Her story inspired more female athletes.

Equally impressive was the story behind Suzan Muwonge's mark in motorsport.

Muwonge defied all the odds to win two National Rally Championships (NRC) in a male-dominated sport.

The Lady Rugby Cranes and Lady Cricket Cranes are worth celebrating too.

Clearly, there has been so much progress in women's sports over the years.

The writer is an analyst on SportsWoman that airs Thursdays at 2.30 pm on Urban TV