| By Walter Washika,
:: 08-08-2011
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The athletics season that kicked off in early January with the National Cross Country, was climaxed on July 22 and 23 with the
National Championships.
The two day event at Namboole Stadium saw the entire track and field teams from all regions within Uganda gather for the meet. However, the UCU team exhibited a flop, five spots from last year’s position three. “This has been the worst national performance by the team. Most athletes could not give their best because of the pending academic work,” said coach Timothy kabuye.
The Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) uses this meet to select the national team for various international events.
The select team including UCU’s sprinter Geoffrey Akena and field events’ Proscovia Acan will pitch up training in preparation for the World University Games in Beijing in August 12-24.
The team will also take part in the All-African-Games in Maputo- Mozambique in mid September before they travel to Korea for the World Championships due in October. Demus Praiz earlier on the tentative list might not be suited for any events with the national team. This follows the recurring ankle injury that got him trotting behind the 200m pack to finish distant last with a time of 22.9sec.
The national field events coach Peter Omony Okot mentioned the lack of adequate facility and personnel.
“There is a very small improvement on the field events team due to poor exposure and lack of adequate training. Majority athletes on the national team are based in the North yet so neglected,” said Okot.
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Uganda Christian University's community newspaper
:: Uganda Christian University 2008