Racket gold duck broken at African Games

Badminton and table tennis were played a week before the grand opening of the Games, especially to vacate the venues for other sports. Table tennis posted an average performance but badminton refused to leave Accra unnoticed. 

And spirited performances especially from the women's team broke a few national records. Husnah Kobugabe and Gladys Mbabazi paired brilliantly to defeat their Algerian opponents 2-0 in the Women's Doubles final, to claim Uganda's first gold medal in racket games (including table tennis and squash) in the history of the African Games. 

After a tightly contested first set, which at some points tied at 19-19, 20-20 and 21-21, before the  Ugandan duo clinched it 23-21, the second set was seamless, with the Ugandans leading by at least two point, throughout. It was an epic victory that stopped Algeria from dominating the doubles before  their men's team smothered the Nigerians  2-0. 

"We are super excited and proud of our country that we have won this historic gold medal. It was because of hard work and support from the federation and the government that we have managed to do it," Kobugabe said in an interview.

"We survived an upset in the Round of 16 and that woke us up and approached the remaining games with a lot of strength."
coach William Kabindi was equally delighted. 

"It's every athlete's dream to win such big medals. And achieving it is really a big reward for our efforts," Kabindi said. "We have won gold elsewhere but this one is my biggest career achievement." 

You cannot thrive in Doubles without good coordination. "The more you train together you learn each other's strength and weaknesses. You get to know what your partner can and can't do. So we were able to cover up for each other, Mbabazi explained, echoing the coach's remarks. 

South African nemesis

Uganda could even have done better if it wasn't for one woman so familiar with Uganda and Ugandan players. South  African multiple champion Johanitah Scholtz, came in as Africa's Seed Three and stopped two Ugandans in her march to gold. 

In 2021 and at the  Uganda International Challenge, in February 2024, Scholtz won gold medals in Kampala, whose hot  weather she found similar to that in Accra. So she needed no time for acclimatisation. 

In the women's semifinals, Scholtz defeated  Uganda's Fadillah Shamika 2-0  in a revenge match. In their first meeting Shamika stunned Scholtz in South Africa, Scholtz paid back in Egypt, before doubling her revenge in Accra as Shamika settled for bronze. 

In the final, she met Kobugabe, fresh from winning that doubles gold against Algeria. Whether Kobugabe was buoyed or jaded, Scholtz never minded. She beat her 2-0 to retain the African Games gold medal she won when she was 19 years old in Rabat, Morocco in 2019.  

With another bronze by swimmer Gloria Muzito, and silver by weightlifter Davis Niyoyita, Uganda's performance is already better than that of 2019 which fetched two silver medals and eight bronze medals.