USF: Facilities critical in creating more Namutebis

Namutebi shows off her medals. PHOTO BY MAKHTUM MUZIRANSA

KAMPALA- The fundamental questions in the aftermath of the Africa Junior Swimming Championships in Tunisia, where Kirabo Namutebi won two gold medals and one silver, are two.

First, how does Uganda Swimming Federation (USF) build on this performance? Secondly, can Namutebi, 14, go on to conquer the content and the later the world in senior competitions?

Namutebi swum in the 13-14 years girls’ age group scooping Uganda’s first ever two continental golds; in the 50m freestyle (27.33) and 50m breaststroke (35.13) and dragging the team of 12 to a fourth-placed finish behind South Africa, Egypt and Namibia respectively. “Getting to this level (and maintaining it) takes a lot of sacrifice,” Namutebi said in a press briefing held yesterday at the National Council of Sports (NCS) offices in Lugogo, where she met Minister of State for Sports Charles Bakkabulindi.

USF president Dr. Donald Rukare, gave a sneak peek into the strategy that would consolidate this achievement. This requires them to grow the athletes’ base from about 1,000 currently to over 5,000 in the next three years. USF also want to certify more coaches, create a support system that will enable swimmers access psychologists, nutritionists, scholarships and better facilities.

It is worth noting that Uganda’s competitive swimmers, who have to settle for mostly 25m pools built in schools and places of recreation, are under-training. “Facilities are critical. If you train in a 25m pool, then even when you compete in the 50m one, your muscle memory remembers what you do in the 25m. You start looking for walls and they are not there,” Rukare explained after handing over a blue print of their dream aquatic centre to the minister. Namutebi’s mother – also president of Uganda Volleyball Federation – Hadijah Namanda re-echoed the message when speaking on behalf of parents.

“These young people had a baptism of fire but they did us proud. If we can get them the facilities they need, they will deliver more medals,” she said. Bakkabulindi did not make any promises but acknowledged that ‘you cannot develop a sport without facilities.’

“Government will try its level best to build infrastructure. Right now we are still handling Teryet and it is supposed to have a pool but that is long-term.”

NCS general secretary Dr. Bernard Patrick Ogwel promised that swimming is one of the 11 sports that will be housed when the 16 acres of Lugogo are redeveloped.

“We hope that in the next financial year USF can start to benefit rightly from government funding. But government has also endorsed our Public-private partnership project worth $20m (about Shs720b) to redevelop this land,” Ogwel said.