Class littered with Gold

Uganda has always won medals in multiple international sports events – Olympics, Commonwealth and African Games et al.

So often, those medals have come in individual sports disciplines with boxing and athletics delivering most of the success.

Team sports aren’t synonymous with consistent participation that has made success at major games a distant dream.

This year’s African Games in Accra, Ghana could yet help us take a second look at team sport.

Both football teams – men and women - have delivered medals. Rugby has matched that, and with gold for both the men and ladies.

If the Rugby Cranes 7s were commanding in cruising to gold, the Lady Cranes 7s were ruthless in the three-day event.

At the University of Ghana, the pair aced their competitions to ink their names as having won the inaugural edition of rugby as part of the multi-sports event.

Perhaps, the victories were obvious. The two teams were more prepared and exposed than their counterparts – a rarity in Ugandan sport.

They arrived in West Africa after a round trip that saw them play in the second leg of the ongoing World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in Uruguay.

Both of whom finished third in the 2023 Africa Sevens and the women won the Kenya Safari Sevens. The confidence showed in the scores.

This was a class act. “This is a great project that all the players have bought into. We want to go as far as we can,” Lady Cranes coach Charles Onen said.

His team also lie fourth in the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series after two rounds in Dubai and Montevideo. They play in Warsaw, Poland in May.

Coach Tolbert Onyango’s Rugby Cranes 7s have faltered in the Challenger Series but surely the trip to Ghana will provide some relief, for now.