All Africa Badminton Senior Championship: Team Uganda Off to Conquer Johannesburg
Team Uganda feels ready for the 2023 All Africa Badminton Senior Championship slated to be held in Johannesburg South Africa between, 13th and 19th February 2023.
The team of 10 players, four women and six men has been camping at Ndejje University Main Campus in Luweero District for the past two weeks and their head coach, Karimunda Ivan believes that his team is in good shape to go and win medals in South Africa come next week.
“Each player on the team is safe and sound, we do not have any injuries, so we are not limited by numbers. The advantage of having a big number is that technically, you have options, and can try out various strategies. What I can say that we are set and the players proved to us that they can apply all the techniques taught to them and only going for medals in South Africa.” Said confident Karimunda.
The last time Uganda featured in this tournament and was the hosts, won a bronze medal in team events and this time round, the championship has attracted 17 nations of Africa and Uganda players believe that they now have enough experience to reach final both in team and individual events as Uganda’s seed one Kasirye Brian explains.
“Our target is to reach the final in both the team and individual events . This will be my second appearance at the All Africa Senior Championship, We came back with a bronze medal in team events , but this time round I have had enough training, I have been in Dubai, got enough training and I believe this time we shall perform better.”
Kasirye returned from an individual training session in Dubai, to join the team in camp while Shamika was one of the players present with the Kampala Badminton Club at the launch of the National League two weeks back
Fadilah Shamika is one of the top female players Uganda has hope in, she asserted that the training got at Ndejje was efficient enough to shape them for the tournament.
“The training for the past ten days has been effecient for us as a team to go and perform really well in South Africa, and we have met with many of the players and the teams that we are going to face, so it won’t be new to us and hoping for the best performance.” Says 17year old Shamika.
The team will be in the custody of Head Coach Karimunda Ivan as Amos Muyanja captains the pack of experienced players in Fadirah Shamika, Husina Kobugabe, Lubega Muzafaru, Gladys Mbabazi, Kasirye Brian, Kenneth Mwambu, Emuddu Expendito, and Tracy Naluwooza and Fadilah Shamika.
The team will set off on Saturday afternoon aboard the Uganda airlines, as they look to destabilize the continent’s powerhouses like Egypt, Algeria, and the hosts South Africa in their backyard.
The tournament will be of both team and individual events, the Teams contest scheduled for the 13th to 16th when the finals will be played, before the tournament rounds up with the individual competitions from the 17th to 19th on Sunday afternoon.
The format of the Team Event Competitions will be a group phase followed by a knock-out round as BWF General Competition Regulations will apply to the Championships, while the individual tournament will be played on a knock-out system.
Each tie will be composed of five matches: one Men’s Single, one Women’s Single, one Men’s Double, one Women’s Double, and a mixed Double.
Teams winning three or more matches in any tie will be declared as the winner and a player is not allowed to play more than two matches per tie.
Uganda hosted the last two editions in 2021 and 2022, managing to win bronze last year as Egypt topped the medal tally in Lugogo.
From the All Africa Senior Championships, the team will return home for the Uganda International Challenge to be held in Lugogo from the 22nd to the 26th and later the Junior Internationals from the 27th of Feb to the 01st of March at the same venue.