East Africa Secondary School Games notebook
BLACKOUTS NOT STRANGE IN GULU
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Gulu town was filled with the sound of roaring generators yesterday as businesses stayed open on a day when they were experiencing a power blackout. There was heavy rain on Monday night into yesterday. During the downpour, that started after midnight, power went off and it hadn’t returned by press time. Power blackouts are common in Uganda. Lately, the service provider, Umeme, has been taking to radio to warn the public.
THEY HAVEN'T DONE SO THIS TIME
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When the regional schools’ sports association chose Gulu as the sixth Ugandan town to host the annual Brookside East Africa Secondary School Games, they must not known what to expect. Not even the knowledge of taking the games to Mbarara, Lira, Kampala and other Ugandan towns could have given them the kind of insight on the reception Gulu would give them. Sunday was a testament of northern Uganda’s hospitality with a mammoth crowd flocking the Peace Stadium for the opening ceremony. The stadium was packed in a manner that left only standing room. The only dampener for the home crowd was Jinja SSS losing 2-1 to Kenya’s Kakamega High School in the football game that superseded the ceremony. You shouldn’t be surprised by the scores being posted in boys’ and girls’ hockey matches at the East Africa Secondary School Games here in Gulu. The grass surface at the St Joseph’s College Layibi is bumpy and uneven. The grass is not levelled. Teams have been unable to pass the ball so much so they keep hitting the ball towards a general direction, hoping that a teammate is on hand to pick it up. One of the girls in the tournament, St Cecilia Misikhu of Kenya, termed the playing ground “a kraal on which most cows would decline to rest.”
ORGANISERS CLEAN UP VENUE
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The piles of mud that we encountered on arrival at the Peace War Memorial Stadium are finally gone. Organisers, helped by days of baking sunshine, have worked hard to ready the main venue for the two-day athletics competition that starts tomorrow. The fine murram running track will feel like tartan for runners. The playing area is equally good while the jumping pits are fantastic. Why did it take so long again? Regional giant Kenya is, as usual, expected to dominate in athletics.
TWO CORNERED, TWO GOALS BY UGANDAN STAR
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Choosing to hit the target from a corner kick is ridiculous. Your teammates are in the box, waiting for a good delivery to turn past the goalkeeper.
More importantly, your defenders have trekked nearly 90 metres to get into the penalty area, hoping to get the heads or any body part onto the ball for a rare goal. Kawempe Mulism SSS forward Hasifa Nassuna decided against these options. She scored from two corner in her team’s 3-0 rout of Rwanda’s GS Remera-Rukoma on Tuesday.
The first was from the right wing with her left foot. The second was from the left win with her right foot. In both cases, the ball evaded her teammates, the opposing players and goalkeepers.
And, yes, it was intentional for the reigning Ugandan women’s football-of-the-year.
