Christine Nakitto Impresses in She Cranes First Build up Match Ahead of World Cup
With 45 days to 2023 Netball world cup to be held in Cape Town- South Africa, Uganda netball national team, the She Cranes have geared up their preparations with build up matches against male side.
Limited hopes for the team to have international friendlies as earlier planned but to test the potential and at what level are his players, Coach Mugerwa Fred Tabale decided to have build up games against the male select team.
The team had friendly games today, Monday at Lugogo Indoor Arena – Kampala, though all the 19 players currently in camp played to their best, Christine Nakitto, a new name on the team been so impressive.
Nakitto, the KCCA Netball Club defender, started in the first team that lost 64-51 against male side.
She played as a goal defender but on the court she made the most steals at least eight and inceptions though she was against a well composed offensive and fit male’s attacking trio.
With the absence of Joan Nampungu who went AWOL, Nakitto is getting in shape to fill the void left by the former She Cranes assistant captain who was with the team in last World cup (2019) held in Liverpool England.
Speaking with this website, a 21 year old workaholic and aggressive defender was also impressed by her performance especially with the improvement on speed and game reading.
“As a person I see that I have improved a lot especially on speed, it’s not easy to steal a ball off a male player, they are fit and know always where to put the ball, they make limited errors but if I can steal those balls off them, then that is a nice improvement and the friendly has helped me a lot.” Say Christine Nakitto after the morning session game at Lugogo.
“About the whole team, there is coordination amongst us compared to the time we joined the camp, our shooting is doing well especially Miima [Nassanga Shadia], in most cases she has been shooting from far but she was accurate, even the defense but we need only to improve on few areas especially supporting, the mid court players need to improve on that.” She said.
The technical team is yet to announce the final 15, Nakitto is not sure whether she will make the final cut.
Head Coach revealed to this website that at the end of this month (June), will at least be with the final list.
“The team is good shape, I am impressed with the way they have played against the men, with the final list, it’s not yet out but at least I have 13 so far, only remaining to decide with the last two and at the end of the month the final 15 will be out.” Says Mugerwa.