Government pulls tennis coach off Common Wealth Games plane
The Ugandan government through the National Council of Sports (NCS) has stopped the national table tennis coach Ronald Andira from traveling for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia.
"A final decision has been made and no table tennis official will travel for the Games," Patrick Ogwel, the assistant general secretary (administration) at the National Coucil of Sports (NCS) and team manager for Team Uganda going for the Games said
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The development comes after the NCS said they do not recognise the leadership of the Uganda Table tennis Association (UTTA) that picked the coach Andira.
Nicholas Muramagi, the Secretary general of NCS told URN earlier in the week that he could not allow the whole table tennis team travel because they are not under the recognised administration. " We recognise the body run by Douglas Kayondo and not the faction run by Robert Jaggwe which picked the team," said Muramagi.
But it took the intervention of the State Minister for Sports, Charles Bakkabulindi who said although table tennis has leadership wrangles, the players are innocent and should be allowed to travel for the games, while the coach Andira and Jaggwe who were originally on the list have been barred. "This is very disappointing because I have been training this team and also investing my personal finances to move around for training," a disappointed Andira lamented.
The coach will miss the Shs7.7 million (US$2,100) for the 21-days as allowance.
Uganda will send 69 athletes in 11 disciplines at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games slated for April 5-15. The 2012 London Olympics gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich will however miss the Games as he opted run in the Hamburg Marathon in Germany instead.
