Van Pee pleased with Uganda’s display

Uganda’s team captain Van Pee manoeuvres through the rough course at Garuga Race Track on Saturday. PHOTO BY JB SSENKUBUGGE.

What you need to know:

Motocross. Uganda trounced Kenya 1217-530 in the FIM Central Africa Motocross Championship the weekend

Kampala.

Uganda will take a 687-point lead into the second round of the FIM Central Africa Motocross Championship after bettering Kenya at Garuga over the weekend.

Uganda banked on home ground advantage to win the two-day event with 1217 points compared to Kenya’s 530.
Despite what appears to be an average performance, Ugandan captain Maxime Van Pee is confident they will defend the lead when Kenya hosts the second leg in October. “Overall, the performance was good. Maybe we could have done better in some classes but we will still be able to protect the lead,” Van Pee assured.

With Kenyan riders not featuring in the MX1 class, Uganda picked all 217 points with Van Pee winning all three heats in the event that also acted as the third round of the Mountain Dew National MX Championship.

Aviv Orland also won all three heats but had to come from behind in the third to defeat Kenyan Ethan Nyachae in the MX85 class to the delight of the capacity crowd on the wet and newly designed Garuga race track. That ensured Orland got maximum 60 points with Ben Nsumba coming third on 37 points. Sibling Stav Orland also triumphed in the MX65 class ahead of the Kenyan pair of Jet Takunnen and Mali Kiplagat. The Kenyans, however, dominated in the MX2 and MX125 classes with Ngungi Waweru outclassing Fatuh Kiggundu in the former while Rolf Kihara led a 1-2-3 finish in the latter.

Kenya won last year’s title after Uganda’s 1376–549 point victory was overturned for failing to pay Shs8m affiliation fees.

Round 1 results
Uganda 1217-530 Kenya
Round two in Kenya: October 14th–16th