On Sunday, a member of Uganda’s Olympic contingent for boxing tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Japan for the competition due to start on 23 July. The event was postponed last year, but is now set to go ahead despite a fresh wave of Covid-19 cases in Japan.
The positive case is now in self isolation and is reportedly recovering steadily and could possibly be in good shape prior to the start of the comepetitions.
However, according to Uganda Boxing Federation (UBF) President, Moses Muhangi, National Council of Sports (NCS) and Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) are the ones to be faulted for this positive test because according to him, they exposed the team to the virus before they left the nation for Japan.
“Its actually NCS and UOC that messed up the camp by doing micro management of it. NCS bypassed UBF and financially dealt with service providers and athletes,” Muhang said.
“UOC was at the centre of information sharing and they also often bypassed the federation and dealt with athletes and coaches directly,” Muhangi added.
Muhangi also adds that the teams was always out of camp signing sponsorship deals with various companies something that could have exposed them to the possibilities of contracting the virus.
Muhangi now worries that with one official down, it could possibly impact the performance of the athletes, but he hopes for the best.
The boxing contingent was the first legion of Ugandan athletes to travel for the games. Other batches of players, coaches and officials will leave for the event subsequently.
Three boxers will represent Uganda at the Olympics, that is; Shadir Musa – 69kg, Semujju David – 75kg and Nanziri Catherine – 49kg.
Te Olympics will run from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan with 25 Ugandan athletes (13 females and 12 males) set to be in the mix.
