Uganda good for a medal at 2018 CWG

Sixty nine Ugandan athletes will be among the 6,600 athletes from 71 nations who converge on Australia’s Gold Coast next week to contest at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Uganda’s involvement at this dogged relic from Britain’s faded imperial past can be traced back to 1954 at the inaugural Games in Vancouver, where Patrick Etolu (RIP) skipped over 1.99m and brought home the high-jump silver.
We went on to win another eight medals, peaking with the 16-medal haul of the 1970s, before tailing off due to years of conflict, as was the case in the missed editions of 1978 and 1986. We are only now beginning to show signs of revival as proved by our haul of five medals at Glasgow 2014 – our most since 1974. There has also been a total of five golds in three consecutive editions since 2006 that followed a lean spell, since Godfrey Nyakana won us gold at Auckland 1990. For the 2018 edition, we will be represented across 11 fields. This is double what went to Glasgow 2014. Except for swimming, perhaps omitted in response to the shambles of Glasgow-2014, when none of our three contestants entered the pool twice, Athletics, Badminton, Rugby Sevens, Weightlifting will be enhanced by Boxing, Cycling, Netball, Shooting, Squash, and Table tennis. And we can bet on a medal.
Ever since Etolu won silver in 1954, we have averaged two medals per edition. His feat may not have led to a glut of Ugandan high-jumpers (his 2.03m national record set in a 1956 Bombay meet stood for 43 years), but I like to think his main achievement was opening the door for other sports. Boxers and middle-distance runners especially, followed in his trail and we have since amassed 49 medals- 13 Gold, 15 Silver and 21 Bronze. This ranks us 18 out 71 nations in the all-time medal haul and makes the Commonwealth Games Uganda’s most successful sports effort.

Most successful
Boxing remains our most successful single discipline accounting for eight out of our 13 golds. But, the sport has since deteriorated so much that we did not even send a team to Glasgow 2014. This year, our squad of Juma Miiro, Bashir Nasir, Kavuma Ssemujju, Musa Bwogi, and Reagan Ssimbwa, is so novice that we cannot expect our medals to come from here.
Also, even if we have a respectable netball team, we must be honest and say nothing will come out a pool that has New Zealand, England Scotland Wales and Malawi.
Likewise, our Rugby Sevens team might have come a long way, but this will be more about exposure than podiums. And surprise is what would greet anything coming out of for Badminton, Squash, Table Tennis, Shooting and Weightlifting representatives.
This leaves us with middle distance running, and 10,000m specifically. We own the 10,000m and the Commonwealth gold medal has been resident in Uganda for the last 12 years. Even if Boniface Kiprop and Moses Ndiema Kipsiro won’t be in Australia, Joshua Cheptegei will bet he will win it and the 5,000m for good measure.

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MBanturaki