We’re braced for 2022, says Rukare

Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) believe 2021 has been a successful year for them despite the disruptions caused by Covid-19.
The body oversaw Uganda’s most successful Olympics in July and August in Tokyo – Japan as runners Joshua Cheptegei and Peruth Chemutai returned with the 5000m and women’s 3000m steeplechase gold respectively. Cheptegei added silver in the men’s 10,000m while Jacob Kiplimo bagged bronze.
“Covid-19 is a dark cloud that remained with us and is still here,” UOC president Dr. Donald Rukare, said as he urged stakeholders in the sports sector to embrace vaccination against the virus.

“But despite all that, we undertook a lot of things like giving out scholarships to coaches, athletes for Paris (2024 Olympics) and administrative courses, finding partners and establishing a cordial relationship with National Council of Sports that reflected on and off pitch in Tokyo. We hope 2022, which is when we hope to build our own home, will even be better,” Rukare, who was flanked by his vice president Dunstan Nsubuga and assistant general secretary Lydia Ssanyu Dhamuzungu, added.

Commonwealth Games
UOC were promised to receive funding for the home by ANOCA (Africa National Olympic Committees Association) during the latter’s elections in Entebbe in April. Government through the Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni and Sports Minister Hanson Denis Obua promised to find the local body land.

But among other things that UOC will hope to be better are the Commonwealth Games (CWG) due July 28 to August 9, 2022 in Birmingham – England. The Queen’s Baton came to Uganda early last month for three days but the with the pandemic gathering more strength, especially, in winter-swept Europe, some preparations are expected to be affected. Already, the chef-de-missions meeting on January 7 has been shifted from a physical engagement to an online one. Uganda’s plans to camp in the Japanese cities of Uzumisano and Tateshima for the 2020 Olympics were disrupted by Covid-19.
And now any possibility of having the same ahead of Birmingham hang in balance but the trio believe the Games will happen as July comes in the summer while there is also more time to push for vaccination.

Beyond that, there are selection concerns for example in boxing, where Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) initially locked out athletes, who were not willing to sign contracts, from the Champions League that doubles as the Games’ qualifiers. 
“First of all, we do not own athletes (UOC or CWG Association of Uganda) therefore team selection is a preserve of federations. However, our communication with the federations has improved and all of them have agreed to a team selection policy, in which they rank athletes performance at home, on the continent and world stage.

Better communication
But the reason why we need a new sports law is that following this policy is voluntary so aggrieved athletes, who may not agree with the selection, do not necessarily have where to seek redress,” Rukare explained.
It is from this background that the revolting athletes and UBF were urged to find a truce that allows the former to participate in the Champions League as their “regulatory issue is handled by NCS.”

While at it UBF continues to wait to learn about the weights that will be eligible at the Games as the rebranded International Boxing Association (IBA formerly Aiba) continues to resolve its governance issues with the International Olympic Committee. 
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