Kahwa tips rowers to secure Uganda international medals

KAMPALA.

Uganda Rowing Federation (URF) president Hamza Kahwa, believes the sport can be one of Uganda’s go-to discipline for medals at international games by 2030.

This followed the selection of a 13-man technical advisory board, from a three-day national rowing symposium held a fortnight ago, which will oversee the development of the sport under the supervision of the world rowing body Fisa. The board includes members from Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC), URF and other sports stakeholders.

“I want to pledge that as URF we will adhere to resolutions of the DNSS (Development of National Sports Structures) symposium,” Kahwa said, in light of the workshop that was supposed to highlight their challenges and forge a way forward for the sport.

New sport
Rowing was introduced here after Fisa’s 18-boat donation in 2009.

Rowers have gone on to attend some of the most prestigious competitions in the world like the African Championships, where Gerald Ssemambo won a bronze medal in 2014, World Senior (2015), Junior (2014) and U23 Championships (2014), and the Youth Olympics (2014).
Kahwa acknowledges the administrative challenges that have hampered development of the sport over the last two years but now believes in a possibility to consolidate their gains.

“I want to assure you that all that is behind us and by 2030, we shall be one of Uganda’s medal hopeful sports at events like the Olympics and World Championships. It won’t be an easy journey but we are confident,” Kahwa added.

This partnership with Fisa is said to be a $57,000 (over Shs188m) project that will see world body supervise and review Uganda’s development over the next two years.
Sarah McQuade, a development consultant from USA, and Rachel Davis, Fisa coaching expert from Zimbabwe conducted the seminar at Sheraton, UOC and Kisubi Beach.