Uganda International Challenge: Only One African on Podium as 2024 Edition Climaxes

The last Paris Olympic 2024 qualifier event on the African soil climaxed today, Sunday at Lugogo Indoor Arena. 

Though Africa had a number of entries into the championship, it has got only one representative on the winners podium and won only a bronze medal. 

The Nigerian player, Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori is the only African who won a bronze medal, he lost on the semifinal 2-0 [13-21,10-21] against the eventual winner of the men singles, Le Duc Phat from Vietnam. 

Juwon, though settled for a bronze medal, he couldn’t hide his excitement because it was his first time to penetrate to the semis of Uganda International Challenge. 

“Every time I play Uganda International Challenge, it has always been the quarter final for me, this time round I reached the semifinal and got points that push me to the direction of qualifying for the Olympics, so I am very happy and a lot I have achieved.” Says Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori. 

The Vietnamese Le Duc Phat won the men singles category after beating the Indian star, Raghu Marswamy two sets straight on final, [21-18,21-14] and he gathered 4000 points and $1800 prize money in cash. 

Indian Aakarshi Kashyap beat her country mate, Shruti Mundada 2-0 in an epic final to win the gold medal. Kashyap beat Mundada 25-23,21-18 to win the $1800 prize money in women singles. 

Uganda’s Husina Kobugabe revealed that they learnt a lot from the foreigner and asserted that they have to do much on their training and Preparations ahead of any international tournament. 

“In summary, uganda international was not so good for ugandans because we all lost before the round of 16 which is not good for a host but since this is a big tournament, most of us were going past the first round and some of the double players like Tracy Naluwooza and her partner [Fadilah Shamika] were in the quarter finals, in general we tried our best and we hope to do better in the next Uganda International.” Says Husina Kobugabe.

“I think it goes back to the training that we get as ugandans, that needs to improve because these people are executing a lot of good skills on court which we don’t, so it’s the training first and then the rest will come later. We need to prepare, not for two or three weeks to the tournament but for months like those people do.” She added.

The Uganda Badminton Association CEO Simon Mugabi stated that the tournament was a success and they are switching to Uganda International Juniors challenge that is starting on Monday 26, February 2024 at the same venue. 

The winners in different categories; 

Men Singles: 

Gold medal – Le Duc Phat [Vietnam]

Silver medal – Raghu Marswamy [India] 

Women Singles: 

Gold Medal – Aakarshi Kashyap [India] 

Silver medal – Shruti Mundada [India] 

Men Doubles 

Gold medal – M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila

Silver medal – Vinson Chiu and Joshua Yuan 

Women Doubles

Gold medal – Paula Lynn Cao Hok and Lauren Lam  [USA]

Silver medal – Francesca Corbett and Allison Less [USA] 

Mixed Doubles 

Gold medal – Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath [India]

Silver medal – Kenneth Zhe Hooi Chop and Gronya Somerville