18-year-old shakes off injury to win gold

KAMPALA.

Maroon Aqua Sports Rowing Club’s Betty Nabifo overcame an injury to win gold for her club in the East and Central Africa Club Championships.

Nabifo injured her ankle as she took part in a road work routine during last week’s umpiring and coaching courses held under the stewardship British instructor, Jim Flood at Kisubi Beach.

But the 18-year-old defied her coach’s orders to pull her out and rowed herself to gold in the lightweight women’s single scull. She also won silver in the lightweight doubles with counterpart Batenga Nakisozi.
“I had decided to pull her out of these championships because of the injury but she threatened to quit the club,” coach Rodrick Muhumuza said.
“So I granted her her wish and I am proud she has won us gold that we had nearly given up on,” he added.

Nabifo is just one of the many local rowers that had to overcome challenges to win gold. But like her fellow medallists, she returns home satisfied with herself and hoping for a quicker recovery.

According to Muhumuza, who also doubles as the national team coach, the biggest challenge was for the rowers adjusting from the 2000m races they had trained for to the 1000m sprints which the course of the lake demanded.

The other challenge, he noted was that some rowers had too many finals to compete in yesterday. He attributed this to the low level of participation in the event. Alfred Okello was one of the rowers in the latter category as he competed in two semi finals and three finals.

For a game that calls for power and endurance, one can understand why he managed only one gold medal; in the lightweight single scull event.