Ndejje beat Makerere to secure second title
Ndejje University vice-chancellor Professor Eriabu Lugujjo receives the overall winners trophy from his UCU counterpart Dr John Ssenyonyi (L) yesterday. Photo by Ismail Kezaala.
What you need to know:
Ndejje were yesterday crowned National University Sports Federation of Uganda (Nusfu) Inter-university Games champions after collecting 20 medals. Record champions Makerere, who have been going through a terrible patch, put up a solid display to finish second (13 medals) ahead of hosts UCU and KIU.
Pictures of Ndejje students celebrating away with several plaques of silverware from several disciplines at Uganda Christian University (UCU) yesterday never concealed the magnitude of the feat.
They had managed to hold off Makerere’s monopoly in the inter university games for the second time running – and in defending the overall title they won in 2011, Ndejje became only the second academia to clinch it in succession after the 12-time record winners – Makerere.
Ndejje finished the 15th edition games top with 20 medals overall, 12 of them gold, six silver and two bronze.
“This success gives us special satisfaction because we are funding sports at Ndejje as our special niche,” said the university sports tutor Paul Mark Kayongo. The university is reported to have run on a budget of close to Shs1b this year, up from Shs700m the previous.
Makerere came second with 13 medals overall – five of them gold, three silver and five bronze while hosts UCU finished with the most points at 21, but were let down by their shortfall in gold, where they managed only three, with nine silver and an equal number of bronze.
Ndejje took team gold in athletics (men and women), badminton, darts, soccer, swimming, table tennis (men), and woodball (men and women) while Makerere grabbed the shining piece in rugby, scrabble (men and women), darts (women) and chess (men).
UCU took the basketball title after overcoming Ndejje 78 -42 in the final, with Lady Canons beating Makerere 52-45. Ndejje needed penalties against Mubs to lift the football title 7-6 after normal time had ended 1-1.
