Uganda has named a 25-member delegation for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Video games, with the nation set to make its mark on the first Olympic occasion to be staged on African soil.
The Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) confirmed the squad on Friday, with seven feminine and 18 male athletes chosen to compete throughout seven sporting disciplines.
Uganda will likely be represented in athletics, badminton, highway biking, coastal seaside sprints, rugby sevens, swimming and desk tennis when the Video games happen in Senegal.
Main the delegation as Chef de Mission will likely be Uganda Olympic Committee Assistant Common Secretary Lydia Gloria Ssanyu Dhamuzungu.
Dhamuzungu has inspired Ugandans to assist the younger athletes as they put together for the worldwide competitors, noting that the Youth Olympic Video games supply greater than a chance to compete.
She urged the athletes to stay assured, work laborious, respect their opponents and proudly symbolize Uganda.
Athletics
Uganda can have 5 athletes in athletics, with the staff that includes runners throughout middle- and long-distance occasions.
The representatives are Baskaline Cherotwo, Racheal Chelimo, Keren Chelimo, Michael Kibet and Timothy Cheptoek.
Cherotwo will compete within the girls’s 1500m, whereas Racheal Chelimo is entered within the 2000m steeplechase and Keren Chelimo within the girls’s 3000m.
Within the males’s occasions, Kibet will run the 2000m steeplechase, with Cheptoek competing within the 800m.
The athletes have been making ready in Kapchorwa beneath coach Ziana Chetoyek.
Swimming
4 swimmers will carry Uganda’s hopes within the pool.
Mary Peyton Suubi, Marie Mbanga, Mark Arthur Mwase and Peterson Inhensiko will compete in a mixed 13 particular person occasions beneath coach Ezra Kalali.
Suubi is entered within the 400m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke, whereas Mbanga will compete within the 50m and 200m breaststroke and 200m particular person medley.
Mwase will contest the 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle occasions. Inhensiko will participate within the 50m and 100m freestyle, 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly.
Rugby Sevens
Rugby Sevens supplies Uganda’s largest contingent, with 11 gamers chosen for the boys’s competitors.
Coach Peter Ochol has named Victor Ampiire, Bonamy Bwambale, Trey Rugamba Gateja, Jeremiah Iragaba, Sanyu Katushabe, Moses Kibeti, Deogracious Muliira, Shafik Okole, Abdulrahman Ongima, Almadi Otema and James Ssebuufu.
Different disciplines
Uganda’s illustration can even stretch throughout 4 different disciplines.
Ali Ssali will compete in highway biking, participating within the males’s highway race and particular person time trial beneath coach Ishaka Bukenya.
In coastal seaside sprints, Marcel Otim will symbolize Uganda within the males’s solo C1x occasion, with Batenga Nakisozi serving as coach.
Badminton will see Ramiah Bukenya compete within the girls’s singles beneath coach William Kabindi.
In the meantime, Jemimah Nakawala and Joseph Sebatindira will compete within the girls’s and males’s singles respectively in desk tennis. The pair can even staff up within the combined doubles, with Alvin Katumba as their coach.
The Dakar Youth Olympic Video games will give Uganda’s younger athletes a chance to compete towards among the world’s rising sporting expertise whereas gaining priceless worldwide expertise.
For the Ugandan delegation, the occasion additionally supplies a platform to showcase the nation’s subsequent technology of athletes throughout a variety of disciplines.
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