By James Robert Kayindi
It was great joy among the Ugandans at Glasgow as Mike Sekabembe beat Barbados’ Emmanuel Anderson at the Scottish exhibition and conference center. It was Uganda’s first fight at Glasgow and for the country since Melbourne edition of 2006. Sekabembe beat Anderson on points of 30-27 as awarded by the judges of the ring that saw him qualify for the quarter finals.
Sekabembe will be back in the ring today to face Ghana’s Haruna Usumanu in the quarter finals at Glasgow in an attempt to try and remind Ugandans the glory days of boxing during the 1990 when Godffery Nyakana won a gold medal.
Despite the joy brought by Sekabembe to the ring of the Ugandans at Glasgow, the coaching staff however brought shame only to be rescued by the coaches of our beloved neighbours, the Kenyans. Uganda’s boxing team lacked enough human resource as far as the coaching staff is concerned especially in terms of “corner men”. It’s alleged that the boxing team went with only one coach by the names of Dick Katende yet it had a couple participants.
In explanation for the shame, Kenneth Gimugu the president of the Uganda boxing federation said; “The sport has for many years had administrative wrangles that we couldn’t train enough human resource. We have however convinced a number of African neigbours into standing in as our corner men.”