{"id":5888,"date":"2021-03-09T18:07:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T18:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=5888"},"modified":"2021-03-09T17:30:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T17:30:47","slug":"hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series","title":{"rendered":"Hockey sides geared up for international series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Ugandan men and women hockey teams travel to Kenya tomorrow for the March 12-14 consolation engagements after their Africa Cup qualifiers were cancelled.<\/p>\n

The sides were supposed to take part in the north and east Africa group qualifiers that were due March 1-8 in Nairobi, Kenya.<\/p>\n

However, only the hosts and Uganda had confirmed their participation to Africa Hockey Federation (AfHF) by start of February. Tanzania, Seychelles, Sudan, Burundi and Egypt (women) did not commit to attend.<\/p>\n

AfHF then decided to cancel the tournament and automatically qualify the male and women sides of the two neighbouring East African countries to the Africa Cup due January 2022 in Ghana.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe agreed to a proposal from AfHF to have a series of games with the Kenyan teams that will help us prepare for January,\u201d Uganda Hockey Association (UHA) assistant general secretary Stanley Tamale told Daily Monitor.<\/p>\n

International ranking<\/b><\/p>\n

The series ratified by International Hockey Federation (FIH) will also help Uganda attain a ranking, which they last had in 2007 when the senior men\u2019s team last had an engagement \u2013 the 2008 Olympic qualifiers.<\/p>\n

The ranking will help with seeding at the continental showpiece and \u201cposition ourselves for FIH support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uganda will take a team of 21 men and 17 women players led by respective assistant coaches Vincent Kasasa and Sandra Namusoke.<\/p>\n

Head coach Francesco Richichi is currently in Italy.<\/p>\n

Of the 21 Hockey Cranes, only striker Thomas Opio was in the 2007 team while chef de mission and current general secretary Phillip Wafula played for the national team at their last Africa Cup in 2000 in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

This will be a new experience for Uganda\u2019s young team that also gets a chance to play on a water-based turf in Nairobi.<\/p>\n

Kasasa will do without the trio of Italy-based Innocent Mbabali, Colline Batusa and Emmanuel Baguma, while Samuel Mwesiga and Peter Elolu are held up by work commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re down by five good players but I\u2019m glad others have stepped up to close the gaps. I am particularly impressed by the performances of Stuart Kavuma, Brian Bayuule and Maxwell Mugisha of late,\u201d Kasasa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving not had games for over a year, we\u2019ve also improved greatly in terms of fitness, tactically, and there is better discipline and aggressiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Hockey She Cranes, Namusoke still decries the fact that she had a smaller pool to select from as most of those summoned could not commit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m impressed by the dedication of these 17 under the circumstances. We\u2019ve been here since January and they\u2019ve turned up consistently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve improved greatly on ball movement but we still have fitness concerns because gyms are closed. We\u2019re surviving on running and a few drills but that is something we can address later.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Ugandan men and women hockey teams travel to Kenya tomorrow for the March 12-14 consolation engagements after their Africa Cup qualifiers were cancelled. The sides were supposed to take part in the north and east Africa group qualifiers that were due March 1-8 in Nairobi, Kenya. However, only the hosts and Uganda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-5888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nHockey sides geared up for international series - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ugandan men and women hockey teams travel to Kenya tomorrow for the March 12-14 consolation engagements after their Afri ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hockey sides geared up for international series\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ugandan men and women hockey teams travel to Kenya tomorrow for the March 12-14 consolation engagements after their Afri ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-09T18:07:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/03\/img-6047b0ad79472.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Hockey sides geared up for international series\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-09T18:07:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series\"},\"wordCount\":467,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/03\/img-6047b0ad79472.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/hockey-sides-geared-up-for-international-series\",\"name\":\"Hockey sides geared up for international series - 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