Africa-Press – Uganda. Ugandan Badminton Association CEO and experienced coach believes the Ugandan team has the potential to dominate the All Africa Junior Championship after they won a team bronze in Benin over the weekend.
“Our players are very experienced for example Fadilah Shamikah, Expedito Emuddu and Tracy Naluwooza have previously played at the world junior championships in 2018 in Toronto, Canada and Kazan, Russia in 2019 against the best players in the world,” observed Mugabi who expects an even better showing in the individual events.
“The surfaces of the courts we train from and the ones at the championship are a bit different as well as the shuttlecock. So maybe they needed a bit of time to get used to them compared to the South African team,” Mugabi explained.
This is after the Ugandan team lost 3-1 to South Africa in the semifinals of the team event to settle for bronze.
Only Fadilah emerged victorious defeating Diane Olivier 21-6 and 21-17 in the ladies singles while Emudu Expedito lost to Caden Kakora 21-16 and 21-5 in the men’s event.
Paul Makande and Tracy Naluwooza lost 21-7 and 21-6 to Robert White Amy Ackerman in the mixed doubles with Emudu and Paul Makande also suffering similar fate in the men ‘s doubles.
In the group stage of the 10-team event Uganda defeated Niger, Burundi and Ghana before falling to Egypt who topped the group.
The Ugandan team started started the individual events impressively with Tracy Naluwooza who is ranked third defeating Kritisha Mungrah of Mauritius.
Naluwooza was then expected to Tiya Bhurtun also from Mauritius by press time for a place in the quarterfinals.
Fadilah is also at the same stage after easily dispatching R. Gnansounou of Benin 21-5, 21-08 to book a spot in the second against another home girl Hesham Mohamed last evening.
The Ugandan pair of Fadilah and Naluwooza who are the top seeds in the ladies’ doubles were also expected to play the Egyptian pair of Kawther Mohamed and Rabee Nour Refaa for a place in the medal brackets.
