Badminton players have had a month’s residential training at Ndejje University in Bombo as they prepare for the coming All-Africa Senior Badminton Championships.
The 2025 All-Africa Senior Championships will be held in Douala, Cameroon from the 10th to the 16th of February 2025.
Uganda will be taking a team of 8 players ( 4 ladies and 4 men) and these include Husina Kobugabe, Gladys Mbabazi, Tracy Naluwooza, Shamika Fadilah Mohamad Rafi, Amos Muyanja (captain), Kenneth Mwambu, Agustus Owiny and Rubega Muzafaru while Kalimunda Ivan will be travelling as the head coach of the team.
The team will travel without 2 players that is Kasirye Brian and Emudu Expendito who were on the team when these championships were last held in 2023 in South Africa where Shamika Fadilah won a gold medal in women’s singles after defeating Johanita Scholtz in finals.
HOW STRONG IS THIS TEAM?
Uganda’s team is full of young and experienced players who have attained their experience in locally organized events, continental events and world events.
The girls are the most experienced players who have put Uganda and Africa’s badminton on the next level.
These four young girls in the names of Tracy Naluwooza, Gladys Mbabaazi, Shamika Fadilah Mohammad Rafi and Husina Kobugabe one would easily conclude that “the sky will be the limit for these four”.
In 2023, Fadilah Shamika Mohamed Rafi was the first woman from Uganda to win the All Africa Badminton Senior Championships individual title.
Sunday, 19 February 2023, will always be remembered in Mohamed Rafi’s career as she bounced back to beat home favourite Johanita Scholtz of South Africa 14-21, 21-14,21-16.
Before Winning gold in South Africa, Fadilah as a Junior player with only 15 years won her first bronze medal in All African Senior Badminton Championships that were held in Kampala, Uganda In 2021. In December 2022, she was also a gold medalist at the All Africa Junior Championships in Mauritius.
She is not the only girl to have won medals in these championships, Husina Kobugabe and Glady Mbabazi won a bronze in women’s doubles in 2021 in Kampala, Uganda. They also won the same medal in South Africa in 2023.
This inseparable team went ahead to surprise not only Uganda but also Africa after securing a historical Gold medal in the women’s doubles badminton at the 13th edition of All Africa games that were hosted in Ghana thanks to Husina Kobugabe and Gladlys Mbabazi.
In the same event, the ladies also won silver which was won by Husina Kobugabe while Shamika Fadilah settled for bronze the medals that boosted Uganda’s performance in the All Africa games where Uganda got 19 medals.
UGANDA ON THE WORLD STAGE
A team of four ladies; Gladys Mbabazi, Husina Kobugabe, Tracy Naluwooza and Shamika Fadilah Mohammed Rafi represented not only Uganda but Africa as a continent in the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas & Uber Cup Finals 2024 that were held in Chengdu, China.
Although they never won any medals, these four never remained the same. Playing on the world stage with the world’s best they had lessons to put down into their badminton books.
One of the writers DEV SUKUMAR writing for a website in China while looking for the best headline he wrote “Outclassed, but Uganda Win Hearts” a statement that one will not take for granted more so if they are going to meet at the forthcoming All Africa Senior Badminton Championships.
RANKINGS
As we are heading to Cameroon this is also an important area to note, as of Tue, 4 February, 00:00 am, Africa’s seed 2 is a Ugandan by the name of Shamika Fadilah Mohammed Rafi with 16,021 only 151 points behind Mauritius’s Kate Foo Kune who is Africa’s seed 1 with 16,172. points.
Husina Kobugabe is in the 4th position with 9,359 points, Tracy Naluwooza in the 6th position with 7,096 points while Gladys Mbabazi is placed 7th with 6,734 points. All four ladies are in the top ten in Africa.
Some of these players have been to the Commonwealth Games.
How can I write this article without mentioning Uganda’s Shamika Fadilah missing out on qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics due to that injury she got in Cairo, Egypt which was her dream and now that she is back, she will have a lot to prove to her opponents in Cameroon.
ON THE MEN’S SIDE…
Although little to be written about them, three players out of four have gone for All Africa games in Ghana and these were Agustus Owiny, Amos Muyanja and Muzafaru Lubega.
On this list, there is Kenneth Mwandu who won a bronze medal in All Africa Senior Badminton Championship in men’s doubles. He also represented Uganda in the 2022 Commonwealth Games that were held in Birmingham, England plus played in the World University Games where he went with Amos Muyanja and Agustus Owiny the games that were held in China.
When it comes to ranks, Owiny is ranked 14th with 4,140 points
PRESSURE AHEAD OF THE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Once you look at the team that went to South Africa for these championships, two of the key players that is Kasirye Brian and Emudu Expendito left this team.
Kasirye who was Uganda’s and Africa’s finest on the court had a lot of impact on the team in his singles he was the best and his mixed double with Husina Kobugabe and his men’s doubles with Lubega Muzafu will always be remembered
Karimunda Ivan who was the head coach In South Africa will also be seen flying to Cameroon for this year’s edition and he says that he is confident with his team despite the fact that some of the key players he used in 2023 left.
