David GOMBE
The Ugandan Parliament has congratulated athletes Joshua Cheptegei and Victor Kiplangat for their outstanding performances at the just concluded World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Cheptegei retained the World title in the 10000m race for the third consecutive time while Kiplangat clinched the World Athletics Marathon gold.
The gold medals saw Uganda finish 11th on the medal table in Hungary. USA came out on top.
Parliament also congratulated the Uganda National Netball team (She Cranes) for their astonishing performances at the Netball World Cup that was held in South Africa.
Uganda beat South Africa 49-47 to register their highest ever finish at the Netball World Cup.
The She Cranes also became number one ranked African side.
The State Minister for Sports, Peter Ogwang moved the motion to congratulate both the National Senior Athletics team and National Netball team for their outstanding performance at the 19th World Athletics Championship in Budapest & World Netball Cup in Cape Town respectively on Wednesday.
Ogwang requested the Parliament to begin appropriating money in the budget to recognize outstanding athletes
“I want the Parliament to help me to begin appropriating money in the budget for purposes of us recognizing these outstanding athletes who raise our flag. They are some of the individual requests which I have been following up but some of them where they come from we need some specific infrastructure. For instance where they train from roads needs to be worked on. I request during appropriation Parliament works with my ministry and ministry of works to make sure that we fulfill the construction of some of those roads for purposes of helping us develop and win more medals.” Said Ogwang before applauding the Netball team
“For Uganda to perform well and finish fifth at the World Cup basing on our funding, it means we have the talent and it’s upon us to begin to invest in sports and tap more talents. This will help our children get professional contracts outside Uganda.”
Netball players such as Shadia Nassanga and Maggie Bagala were recognized by the Parliament.
The Minister also revealed that there’s significant progress at the Teryet National High Altitude Training Centre, with construction now nearly finished. According to him the overall physical completion of the project currently stands at an impressive 97%.
