AN EPIC 2022 SEASON FOR TEAM UGANDA IN 4 MAJOR INTERNATIONAL SPORTS EVENTS

Team Uganda embarked on an eventful season in 2022 with 4 major sporting events taking centre stage. Uganda continues to improve its medal tally at every sporting platform.

The 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA, had Uganda present a total of 17 athletes taking part across 11 different track and road events. Uganda’s duo of Joshua Cheptegei in 27:27.43 and Jacob Kiplimo ran 27:27.97 to a one-three podium finish, claimed Gold and Bronze medals respectively in a stunning 10,000m event while Oscar Chelimo got himself on a podium with a bronze medal finish in the 5000m Men’s finals in a Seasons Best of 13:10.20.

Thereafter in Birmingham at the XXII Commonwealth Games, Uganda was well represented in sports disciplines of Rugby, Netball, Swimming, Table Tennis, Cycling, Wrestling, Badminton, Weightlifting and Squash. Jacob Kiplimo in a Games Record of 27:09.19 won the men’s 10,000m and also the 5,000m in 13:08.08. Olympic Champion Peruth Chemutai defied odds to claim a bronze medal in the women’s 3000m steeplechase and Victor Kiplangat ran 2:10.55 to win the Men’s marathon. History was made in Uganda boxing as female boxer Teddy Nakimuli became the first commonwealth female medalist, claiming a bronze medal in the Flyweight event.

Other outstanding performances for Team Uganda were manifested in Netball and Rugby; with the National Netball Team, the She Cranes completing in 5th position following a well worked out 54-48 victory against South Africa. In Rugby, Uganda’s 7s Team finished 10th in the men’s Rugby 7s tournament losing 17-31 to England in the 9th placement game at the Coventry Stadium.

Uganda Netball Matches:
New Zealand 53-40 Uganda
Uganda 62-28 Trinidad & Tobago
England 56-35 Uganda
Uganda 63-26 Northern Ireland
Malawi 43-56 Uganda
South Africa 48-54 Uganda

Uganda Rugby Matches:
England 31-17 Uganda
Uganda 14-27 Kenya
Uganda 40-0 Jamaica
Uganda 12-12 Australia
Uganda 27-7 Tonga

The 5 medals haul in Birmingham remains the best performance so far for team Uganda at the Commonwealth Games.

From Birmingham, a selected team of Team Uganda proceeded to the Turkish city of Konya for the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games with 54 participating countries from the 09th to 18th August 2022. Team Uganda finished 4th in Africa and 17th overall with a total of 9 medals. 15 year old Para Swimmer, Husnah Kukundakwe was the star of the games with a 6 medal sweep (2 Gold, 3 Silver and 1 Bronze) while in Athletics, Abel Chebet clocked 28:31.39 to win a silver medal in the men’s 10,000m and Janat Chemusto claimed a bronze medal in the 5,000m event. Rising star Kirabo Namutebi with a NR of 26.42 won a silver medal in the women’s 50m freestyle.

In the World Athletics Under20 Championships, in Colombia, Team Uganda completed a great seasons outing with Prisca Chesang winning a bronze medal in the women’s 5000m event in the city of Cali.

Tuesday, August 23, 2022