Uganda’s Captains for the 5th Edition of the East African (Zone IV) Junior Teams’ Competition John Oduke (boys) and Edward Odocken (girls) are positive that their sides will put up a good display when the event serves off next month at the Lugogo Tennis Complex.
The juniors meet will run from 11th to 17th October 2021 and Uganda’s experienced coaches who will Captain the sides believe that the teams are in good shape to cause havoc to their rivals.
“The girls team is ready for the event,” girls’ Captain Odocken said at the event’s launch on Friday at UOC Complex in Lugogo adding that albeit being one of the sides to beat, they won’t be complacent.
Uganda are the current Silver medalists for Girls Category and Bronze Medalists for the Boys’ Category after hosting the event in March 2020.
Ahead of this year’s event, trials were carried out and below were the successful athletes to represent Uganda;
Uganda Team Boys; Abdul Latif Ssenyondwa, Owecknimungu Tony Blair, Ambrose Byaruhangaa
Uganda Team Girls; Afoyorwoth Hilder, Stacy Namirembe, Latifah Kampi
Boys’ Captain Oduke is confident that the charges who made the cut will do a good job.
“It won’t be an easy tournament but I believe these players will do well. I encourage them to take this event seriously because Junior tournaments lay a blue print for career development,” Oduke said adding that the Kinetic Trust Junior Championships (the first trial run for the ITF World Tennis Number) running from 25th to 26th September 2021 will give more youngsters a platform to showcase their skills.
According to Tournament Director Alvin Bagaya, other countries that have confirmed participation are; Tanzania, Seychelles, Sudan, Burundi, Kenya and Ethiopia.
This Competition will serve as a qualifying event for the Final event of the African Junior Teams’ Competition 12&Under (AJTC – 12&U) that will take place early December 2021.
East Africa will qualify One (1) team in the Boys and Two (2) Teams in the Girls to compete at the Final Event of the 12 & Under African Junior Teams’ Championships (AJTC – 12&U)
Competition details;
The competition will be played on 2 Pools of 3 to 4 teams each on a Round Robin Format over 3 days.
The Teams ranked 1st and 2nd of each pool will qualify to compete at the Play off Pool (4 Teams).
Each qualified Team will compete in the play Off Pool with the 2 other Teams while considering the result recorded between the 2 teams that played previously as registered.
At the end of the Play-Off Pool, the team ranked 1 st in the boys & the two (2) best teams ranked 1 st & 2nd in the girls will be qualified to participate at the Final Event of the AJTC for 12 years and under.
The same format will be played between the Teams ranked 3rd & 4th to play for the 5th to the 8th position.
Composition of Tie: Each tie consists of two (2) singles and one (1) doubles and shall be played consecutively on the same court. All matches have to be played.
Match Format: Each singles match shall be the best of three tie-break sets. In Doubles,
Order of Play: The order of play must be as follows: Number 2 Vs Number 2; followed by the Number 1 Vs Number 1; Followed by: the doubles match Method of determining places in the Round Robin: Each tie will consist of three matches, two singles and one doubles.
The program of the competition is:
Monday 11th October 2021
Teams arrival
Tuesday 12th to Saturday 16th October 2021
Teams’ Competition
Sunday 17th October 2021
Teams departure
Tournament Officials;
*Tournament Director- Alvin Bagaya
*Tournament Referee- Ronnie Oduor
*Tournament Umpires-Anthony Abok, Charles Wanyama, David Lwanga Tyaba, Michael Ssebide , Charles Okurut, and Patrick Luyinda.
