Noble’s Olympic adventure offers hope for rowers

Basking In The Limelight. Noble competing in the women’s single repechage during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo on July 24. Her performers got the nation rallying for her and believing that the sport can thrive in Uganda. PHOTO/AGENCIES

What you need to know:

  • Noble was excited about her performance but also for her feat as the first Ugandan to row at the Olympics.

After a tough three races, Ugandan rower Kathleen Grace Noble saved the best for last to end her Tokyo 2020 Olympic regatta as the second top placed African contestant in the 2000m women’s single scull held in July at the Sea Forest Waterway.

Noble was in Final E, where she gave her all upping her rate to 37 strokes per minute at the end, to finish just behind Qatari challenger Tala Abujbara (8:00.22) while beating contestants from Nicaragua (8:10.37), Singapore (8:21.23), Morocco (8:25.38) and Nigeria (8:42.78). The 26-year-old Ugandan, however, eventually sat at 26th behind 18th-placed (overall) Nambian rower Maike Diekmann (7:52.17) at the event.

National record
Noble weighs about 61kg and is 5ft 8inches so should technically have rowed in a lightweight category. However, the Olympics offer only open weight category for individual events, which could have rowers of up to 75kg, one that Noble had never contested in for Uganda before.

That, however, left her 8:07.00 gritty performance clocked in Tokyo as the national record in the open weight category but her second-best overall ever and also the second time she was setting a new national record in July.

On July 3, at the US Independence Regatta in Philadelphia she clocked 7:5.05, a lightweight category national record, albeit recorded on more aiding waters that flowed in the same direction with the boat. The Philadelphia time beat the 8:27.85 made at Netherlands 2016 World U-23 Championships, in which Noble rowed on flat water in the lightweight single sculls.

Noble was excited about her performance but also for her feat as the first Ugandan to row at the Olympics.
What she did not expect was how her sojourn re-energize the rowing fraternity back in Uganda which was suffering from a lack of competition for years.

The performances of this former swimmer born in Uganda to Irish parents, who came here as missionaries, did not only expose the the lack of proper competitions at home but also the fact that boats – donated to Uganda Rowing Federation (URF) through Uganda Olympic Committee by the world rowing governing body Fisa in September 2020 – were sitting at a customs bond over uncleared taxes. Unfortunately, they still do to-date.

This publication learnt that the equipment worth $48,716 (about Shs173m) is sitting at Multiple ICD warehouse in Ntinda, where it has been accruing storage fees too, as URF push – through Ministry of Education and Sports – for a tax waiver.

Competition
The rowers tried to put that behind them when Maroons Aqua Sports Club organized an indoor rowing competition at Kisubi Beach on Independence Day – October 9.

On that Saturday, 45 male and female athletes including one para-rowers Amir Kapere from five clubs turned up at Kisubi Beach to compete at the Maroons Invitational Indoor Championships, where they rowed over different distances – on simulation machines known as ergometers – in their age groups U-15, U-19 and open.

Sadly, it was also noticeable that the waters that used to host some of them in 2014 harbour a large water hyacinth where the boats used to dock – an indication of the lack of the activity.

But the enthusiasm was unmistakable as one of the rowers said; “this is what we have been missing,” as the rowers from different clubs cheered on their teammates in the first event of the day – the 2000m open category.
The target was to simulate the given distances in the fastest time possible with $100 (about Shs370,000) at stake for the men that hit the 2000m in under seven minutes and women who manage the feat in under 7:40 minutes.

Maroons Aqua Sports Club duo of Boniface Okello (6:49.1) and Godfrey Chan Wengo (6:52.0) managed to cash in while Kisubi Pirates’ Juma Aly Kasirye (7:08.3) came agonizingly close.

A fortnight later, URF also held a similar event at Uganda Olympic Committee offices in Lugogo.

African placements

18th: Namibia – Maike Diekmann (7.52.17)
26th: Uganda – Kathleen Noble (8.07.00)
29th: Morocco – Sarah Fraincart (8.25.38)
30th: Nigeria – Esther Toko (8.42.78)
31st: Togo – Claire Ayivon (8.44.42)
32nd: Sudan – Esraa Khogali (10.05.32)

Noble At THE Olympics
Final E: 8.07.00
Semifinal E/F: 8:31.67
Repechage: 8:36.01
Heat: 8:21.85

Boats donated to URF
-2 CP single coastal boats
-2 CP double coastal boats
-2 CA para AS & recreational single rowing boats
-6 CB single rowing boats
-6 CB double rowing boats
- One kit of Spare parts
-1 flat carbon seat (including 4 of Tbolt 8x25, nuts, washers)
-1 complete back support Mark 3 – 260 mm wide
-6 sets of 4 tabs with 8 x 45 mm hex screws, hex nuts, washers to attach seats and backs to C2 machines.

MAROONS INDOOR INVITATIONAL
STANDINGS – October 9
1. Kampala (7 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze)    

2. Maroons (2 gold, 3 silver)

3. UPDF (2 gold, 1 silver)

4. Kisubi Pirates (2 silver, 3 bronze)                                                              

5. River Nile (1 silver)