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2021 Uganda Golf Amateur Championship:

Joseph Cwinyaai was crowned as champion of the 2021 Uganda Amateur Golf Open championship at the par 71-lake side Entebbe Club on Sunday.

The Tooro Golf Club member also the Uganda national golf team captain returned a total of 287 gross over 72 holes played in four days.

Cwinyaai, 26, attributed the feat to resilience over the years, patience and continued hard work.

“I knew and believed that this open was mine this year. I worked hard and was focused throughout the four days. I thank everyone who helped me achieve my dream from the sponsors, friends, Tooro club members and former winners Ronald Rugumayo, Ronald Otile and others,” Cwinyaai told Kawowo Sports.

Cwinya-ai, a handicap two golfer started with 4-over par 75 on the opening round.

He improved with 2-over 73 during round two and was level par by the third day, trailing the leader Lejrima by 4 strokes going into the last round.

Eventually, he won by 3 strokes after a 3-under 68 on the final 18 holes, relegating the defending champion to the second position.

Cwinyaai said he will be turning professional after the achievement. “Surely, I will turn professional to earn from the game,” he confirmed.

2020 champion John Lejirma, from Kenya was runners up with 290 gross mark in 72 holes. Namulonge Golf Club member Tom Jingo finished third with 291, the same score as Zambian Chanda Bwembya.

The amateur championship had followed the Ladies open won by Irene Nakalembe during the previous week and the seniors event claimed by John Muchiri.

Final leaderboard: Top ten

Day 1 &2 Gross

Day 3&4 Gross

Nett winners:

Longest drive: Elton Thembo

Uganda put their Fiba Basketball World Cup qualifying campaign back on track with a 77-74 win over Cape Verde on Saturday night.

The Silverbacks were much improved from the way they played the first game against Mali a day earlier.

Head coach Mandy Juruni had shooting guard Robinson Opong available following his late arrival and delivered an important 17 points in the close game.

Brandon Davies, despite struggling from the line, led the way for Uganda with a game-high 27 points and 16 rebounds.

Both sides started the game slow but Cape Verde edged the opening quarter 14-12.

Despitte going down by as many as 10 points in the second quarter, Silverbacks recorvered and trailed by just a single points (32-31) at halftime.

The fourth quarter was a seesaw until Eric Rwahwire gave Uganda a lead for the first time in the game since the opening exchanges with a long three with about six minutes play.

Uganda picks its first win of the campaign having lost the opener to Mali and will look to end the first window on a high when they face Nigeria on Sunday night.

Uganda Men’s National basketball team, Silverbacks, return to action tonight and head coach Mandy Juruni wants the team to respond.

Uganda fell to Mali 76-66 on Friday in their opening game of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 African Qualifiers in Benguela, Angola.

The Silverbacks, despite being in the game throughout, were hard done by 27 turnovers before falling on the night.

“We came here to win the game, unfortunately, it did not happen. We have to look at the game and see how we can get better, learn from the loss and think about our next game,” said Head coach Mandy Juruni after the game.

“I thought Mali played aggressively and we failed to match up. They took the game away from us, we didn’t play our game and we made so many turnovers and I think it was a huge difference.

“I am not surprised he (Brandon) had a good game for us, he did what is expected of him, but definitely the other players have to step in, this is a team sport and it will not be easy for us if only one or two players show up. Everyone should step in and contribute.

“These Qualifiers are huge for us, we have been improving as a country and I feel we belong here at this stage.

“Most of the things we did not do well against Mali are correctable and if we get them right, we can be a better team. We are not looking at countries, we just have to concentrate on ourselves and I think we can compete with anyone.

“We are going to improve, we should just learn from this and get back stronger. You can see that the effort in there. Every possession is a battle at these games and we have to respect that but I believe that if we can fix a few errors, we can beat anyone.”

Uganda’s National Basketball team, Silverbacks, flew out in the wee hours of Thursday for the FIBA World Cup 2023 Africa Qualifiers’ first window in Benguela, Angola.

The Silverbacks make the trip after a late-late intervention from the government after the basketball federation head Nasser Sserunjogi held a meeting with the State Minister for Sports Hamson Obua on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, FUBA had released a statement saying the team will not be travelling having failed to secure funds for the trip.

Uganda is pitted in a Pool alongside Nigeria, Mali, and Cape Verde. The Silverbacks will face Mali in their first game on 26th November, then take on Cape Verde and Nigeria on 27th and 28th November respectively.

Travelling Contingent

Players: Jimmy Enabu (City Oilers), Tonny Drilleba (City Oilers), Ivan Muhwezi (City Oilers), Fayed Bbale (UCU Canons), Peter Obleng (KIU Titans), Titus Lual Odeke (UCU Canons), James Okello (City Oilers), Abdihakim Ghedi (City Oilers), Ben Komakech (City Oilers), Brandon Davis (Barcelona, Germany), Eric Rwahwire (Hamilton Honey Badgers), Womala Timothy Emmanuel (Schwelm, Germany), Robinson Opong Odoch (unattached)

Officials: Arnold Katabi (Head of Delegation), Mandy Juruni Lutwama (Head coach), Andrew Tendo Ssenyondwa (Assistant Coach), Ram Nyakana Mpunga (Team Physio), Isaac Otuk Gabriel (Team Doctor)

The Federation of Uganda Basketball Associations (FUBA) has confirmed that Uganda’s senior men’s national team (Silverbacks) will not compete at the upcoming first window of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.

Lack of funds was cited as the reason for not travelling to Angola’s western city of Benguela for the November 26-28 event.

“The Federation of Uganda Basketball Association (FUBA) on a very sad note wishes to inform you that the Senior Men’s National Basketball team (the Silverbacks) will not compete at the FIBA World cup qualifiers window 1 in Benguela (Angola) from 26th to 28th of November 2021,” FUBA President Nasser Sserunjogi said in a statement.

“FUBA was informed Government of Uganda through National Council of Sports (NCS) that there was no money to support the team for this particular campaign. The team needed approximately 380 million to make the trip.”

It should be noted that the team put up a splendid performance at the AfroBasket finals in Kigali (Rwanda) recently where they made the quarterfinals, before finishing No. 6 overall.

The Silverbacks had already embarked on preps for the window and have been training at the African Bible College in Lubowa.

City Oilers have learnt their opponents at the Elite 16 Round of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) 2022 Qualifiers.

As per the draws held on Saturday in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, the Ugandan champions are in Group H2 of Division East of the qualifiers.

They will battle with Ulinzi Warriors of Kenya, Ferroviario de Beira of Mozambique, and Cobra Sport of South Sudan who made the Elite 16 round via a wild card.

The other Division East group (H1) has Cape Town Tigers (South Africa), New Stars (Burundi), Kurasini Heats (Tanzania), and Matero Magic (Zambia).

City Oilers have to finish among the top three in Division East to qualify for the final tournament to be played next year.

BAL ELITE 16 Draw Results

Group G1

Group G2

Group H1

Group H2

Uganda claimed Silver at the 2021 Africa Netball Championship after forcing a draw against Malawi on Tuesday afternoon.

The Netball She Cranes lost to eventual winners South Africa 57-37 on November 15 before drawing against Malawi 44-all on the final day to finish second overall.

Going into the final match, Uganda was tying with Malawi at 12 points after seven games but holding a better goal average.

The action saw the Pearl hit the 500 mark of goals scored, South Africa 63 better in the tournament.

Defense was second-best too, conceding 316 goals, a goal difference of 184.

Netball She Cranes results at 2021 Africa Netball Championships

Uganda Men’s national basketball team, Silverbacks, started their preparations for the FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers.

The team of home-based players held their first training session on Monday afternoon at African Bible University in Lubowa.

“The session was basically to try to assess the level of the fitness and see how sharp they are from the drills that we have gone through,” Silverbacks coach Mandy Juruni said.

“We were not badly off, it’s just cleaning a few things and overall I think the training has been okay.

“We want to stress our identity and see how we want to play. From day one when we had a team talk, it was basically telling the players that we want to be a quick team, we are going to be a defensive team and we are going to play off that. So for us to be able to do that obviously we have to be well-conditioned and we have to be mentally ready to try and play the way we want to play.

“We are not such a big team so we have got to rely a lot on our defense and quickness.”

Jimmy Enabu, Tonny Drilleba, Ivan Muhwezi, Peter Obleng, Fayed Bbale, Titus Lual, and James Okello were part of the Monday session while Ben Komakech and Abdhakim Ghedi did not turn up.

Uganda’s Silverbacks pair of forward John Deng Geu and head coach George Galanopoulos is set to reunite at Texas Legends.

The development follows Texas Legends’ announcement of signing Deng Geu who has recently been turning out for SC Rasta Vechta in Germany.

The 6’9″ power forward spent three seasons at North Dakota State before moving to the University of North Texas for his final year in College.

Geu went pro in Denmark and played for the Horsens IC during his rookie year where he averaged 12.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists in the 39 games played.

He is part of Uganda’s squad for the upcoming first window of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers in Benguela, Angola.

Fourteen players have been summoned to start training ahead of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers.

The team will start preparing for the Qualifiers on Friday, 12th November at Africa Bible University in Lubowa before the final 12 is named.

Five foreign-based players have been named on the team including Brandon Davis who is returning to the team since the AfroCan qualifiers hosted in Kampala.

The other four foreign-based players are John Deng Geu, Mohamed Abdihakim Ghedi, Eric Rwahire, and Robinson Opong Odoch, and debutant Emmanuel Timothy Womala who is based in Germany.

Kieran Zziwa, Arthur Kaluma, and Adam Seiko who were part of the Afrobasket squad have not been summoned due to their College engagements while Ishmail Wainright is settling in at Phoenix Suns in the NBA.

The seven local-based players include debutant Ivan Muhwezi, Peter Obleng, and Fayed Baale who have been part of earlier setups. Usual suspects Jimmy Enabu, Tonny Drilleba, Titus Odeke, James Okello, and Ben Komakech complete the local legion.

The Silverbacks will face Mali in their first Group A game on 26th November, before Cape Verde and Nigeria on November 27th and 28th respectively.

Qualification Process

Uganda will have to finish among the top three teams in Group A to advance to the second round.

In the second round, the top three teams from all four groups will be divided into two groups of six teams.

With all results from the previous round carried to the next round, the two best-placed teams from both groups plus the third-placed team with the better record will qualify for the World Cup.

Silverbacks Squad