National Council of Sports (NCS) on Monday 8, May, 2023 flagged off a delegation of eight people from the Uganda Dance sport Federation (UDSF) to depart for the 2023 Africa Breaking Championship which is due to take place in Rabat, Morocco.
The delegation include, six athletes namely; Ndaula Ronald(Bboy Ndaula), Ziraye Samuel (Bboy Saman), Opio Steve (Bboy Pencil), Kiryowa Fahadhi (Bboy Fahadhi), Lulenti Faruk (Bboy Skoolboy Faruk) and Kimuli Frank (Bboy Jogo) and the Federation’s General Secretary who doubles as the secretary General for Africa’s Dance Sport Federations Barnabas Ssebuyungo and the coach Serwakulya Edrine.
The General Secretary Ssebuyungo said this even will double as the Olympic qualifier for Paris 2024 Olympics games where the champion of this edition will qualify automatically while the rest will have to battle for a slot in other scheduled qualification events.
The championship is scheduled to take place from 12th-13th May 2023 in Rabat, Morocco and UDSF has prepared a team of 6 athletes to represent the country.
According to Ssebuyungo the head of delegation, the athletes and coach will depart on Tuesday 9, May, 2023 via Nairobi to France from where they will connect to Rabat on Wednesday and Ssebuyungo due to other official engagements will connect with team on Wednesday.
Coach Serwakulya assured the sports reporters that the team will come back victorious because he has prepared the athletes very well and they are in good and right shape to challenge for the first medal.
“ The Bboys are in good right position to represent the country. I am confident that we shall come back victorious. I expect much from my athletes.’’ Serwakulya said.
The tournament will have only 9 judges and only two are from Africa where Uganda will be represented by Mark Kaweesi and the other judge is from South Africa which is ranked second in Africa while the host, Morocco is ranked third.
Sarah Nankya who represented the General Secretary of NCS cautioned the athletes to be disciplined such that they depict a good image of their country.
“ You are carrying the flag of Uganda, you should exhibit a high level of discipline while in Morocco such that you don’t a sham your country. You shouldn’t get tempted of disappearing after the event like some of the athletes who did that in some tournaments.’’ Nankya cautioned.
She also commended the leadership of the UDSF for showing a very good organization and for exhibiting a high level of integrity as well as working very hard to develop the sport through taking to the various regions of the country despite being a new sport.
Nankya also said that this is now the fastest growing sport in the country and it has been spread in three quarters of the country something that compelled NCS to make it one of the priority sports to be invested in when it comes to the international events such Olympics, world cup and common Wealth games.
Uganda is ranked number one in Africa and 18th in the world rankings out of the 98 countries that play the Dance sport.
By George Bukenya