By Aloysius Byamukama
The covid-19 pandemic that hit the globe and disorganised everything including putting a lock on sports, did not spare the Uganda school sports fraternity.
However, with the problem getting sorted and the pandemic getting slowly under control, sports in Uganda schools got a nod for resumption. The Uganda Secondary Schools Sports Association (USSSA) then held the national championships in Arua for boys’ football, Gulu for Fresh Diary Games and Lira hosted the USSSA Ball Games II. The highly-competitive events saw the best teams qualify for the Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Associations (FEASSSA) games held in Arusha, Tanzania in September.
Team Uganda had severally finished second to dominant Kenya for the rest of the editions since last winning this accolade in 2014 in Dar Es Salaam before stepping on the podium again in Arusha in 2019 after beating Kenya by a single gold to claim the overall title.
But the magnificent victory in the 2022 edition is what will give the Kenyans and the rest of the competitors a big task for fresh notes in the competition next year in Bujumbura, Burundi.
Uganda came out with 18 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze for a total of 41 medals with Kenya coming second with 5 gold, 12 silver and 3 bronze for 20 medals, Rwanda had 2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze for 6 while hosts Tanzania got 1 silver and 5 bronze in Uganda’s comfortable sweep and third overall title in 20 years.
Uganda’s gold medals came from Kibuli and St Noa winning the boys and girls football, Buddo winning both boys basketball 3×3 and 5×5 with Kitende winning both girls’ basketball titles in addition to netball, Kakungulu Memorial won both girls and boys hockey, Namilyango and Hana International winning rugby 15s and 7s respectively, Kibuli winning badminton and table tennis boys in addition to boys’ tennis, Mbogo High winning badminton and table tennis girls, and Uganda team having won swimming boys while Uganda girls won athletics.
Need For More Funding
The 2022 year will also be a memorable one among the USSSA fraternity and association president Justus Mugisha.
His election was spiced up with his re-appointment as the International Schools Sports Federation (ISF) Technical Commission (TC) president for the sport of football that puts him in position to help Uganda acquire the needed experience in terms of football development on world standards.
Mugisha came to the helm of the association in July, when he was elected unopposed, replacing Patrick Okanya, who opted to call it quits and his ascendancy to the seat came few weeks to the good news of increased government funding of sh5b to USSSA for talent identification and development since schools are the foundation of sports talent.
Uganda’s Great Performances In ISF Games
USSSA sent athletes to ISF competitions twice last year and the performances were tremendous.
First with the May ISF cross country championship in Slovakia where Uganda won the overall title with promising runner Loice Chekwemoi beating strong contenders from Morocco, to hit the tape on 09:59:00 for the gold and Uganda boys won silver and bronze.
The Slovakia triumph was followed by the great performances at the ISF U18 games in Normandy, France where Uganda collected 7 medals to finish 7th overall in athletics.
