Overall results:
Uganda 1600 points
Kenya 179 points
With 1421 points as a comfortable lead, Uganda will no doubt defend the FIM East and Central Africa Motocross Championship title.
Uganda took advantage of a large number of entrants and collected 1600 points against Kenya which collected 179 points. The second leg will take place in December at Jamhuri Racetrack Nairobi.
Out of the 78 racers that participated in the regional championship Kenya had only seven who managed to collect 179 points.
This keeps Uganda in a comfortable position to defend the title for the 12 years in a row.
However, the dwindling numbers of Kenyans turning up for the event during the Uganda leg must worry for the continental about the future of the sport.
Kenyan parents believe that Uganda does not have good tracks and also the standard medical services required for them to be comfortable with their children turning up in Uganda and that needs to be addressed.
According to a parent rider, their children are not benefiting from the competitions like they used to be, but only to get bragging rights.
“We are competing amongst ourselves under the pretext that it is an international event. And if something is not done, the competition will collapse,” the parent rider said.
“The FMU and that of Kenya must seat and draw dates for the event that do not affect the education of the children, or the continental body should dictate suitable dates considering the education of our children,” She added.
She also added that efforts must be made to bring Tanzania, DRC, and Zambia back on board because today there is no competition in the region.
“Look at the MX1 and the MX125 class, where the leader overlaps others even the second and third,” she noted.
Indeed, in the MX1 class, Fortune Sentamu overlapped all the competitors he was racing and the same was in the MX125 cc when Gift Sebuguzi overlapped all the others except Ron Young and Dan Mitima who came second and third respectively.
Improved medical services.
UMOSPOC set the bar high during the Bunjako Autocross Championship when they had four experienced medical doctors and 4 paramedics on standby with two ambulances last month.
In Kalisizo, 11 medical support staff and four doctors were available on the ground.
This was the best safety deployment Uganda Motorsport has hard with the other being UMOSPOC Autocross in Bunjako.
Event manager Ponsiano Lwakataka said that he had to do so because it was an international event and secondly it is an effort to improve the safety of the riders.
Southern Motorsport Club which organised the event will next month organise the third leg of the national rally championship in Masaka and is expected to keep the standard high.
Whereas Kenya dominated the MX65cc, it was a family affair in the 50cc class with Jude Musede and his cousin Eadric Musede dominating the class with gold and silver respectively and teammate Helena Birungi who came third.
Their Coach Bright Cyrus Nyero told Vision Sport that he was impressed by his students’ performance, but his goal this year is winning the continental championship.
“Jude won the FIM CAC last year. His performance in this event shows that he will defend it, but our target is winning the FIM MXOAN in August,” Nyero said.
The event was sponsored by Worldwide Movers, Shell Advance and Mountain Dew.
Overall results:
Uganda 1600 points
Kenya 179 points
Results per class
MX 50cc class
Uganda 306 Kenya 35
MX65cc class
Uganda 194 Kenya 144
Mx85cc class
Uganda 158 Kenya 0
MX125 cc class
Uganda 156 Kenya 0
MX2 class
Uganda 214 Kenya 0
MX1 class
Uganda 195 Kenya 0
Veterans class
Uganda 217 Kenya 0
Master’s class
Uganda 60 Kenya 0
END.
