Kabale, Masindi to host 2025 UPSSA championships

Two local governments, Kabale and Masindi, have been selected to host this year's Uganda Primary Schools Sports Association (UPSSA) competitions.

The UPSSA technical team, led by president William Bwambale, conducted a week-long inspection of the competing venues to host the competitions.

After comparing individual notes from the inspection, the two districts stood out from the rest.

“We had to go around the bidding districts to check how ready they were to host the events and from our findings, we have forwarded those we deemed better, to the Ministry of Education and Sports for further scrutiny and confirmation,” Bwambale said.

UPSSA had received applications from several district local governments bidding to host the kids’ and special needs athletics and ball games this year, including Sironko, Mubende, Masindi, Yumbe, Kabale, Kayunga, Mukono, and Hoima.

While Kabale has been overwhelmingly approved as hosts for the kids’ and special needs education athletics from May 3-12, 2025, Bwambale says Masindi slightly leads Yumbe and Mubende on scores for the hosting rights of the ball games, and a second inspection will be organised.

In conjunction with the Physical Education and Sports Department of the Ministry of Education and Sports, UPSSA organises the primary schools’ kids’ and special needs athletics in May, the FEASSA qualifier championship in July, and the primary school ball games in September.

Last year, the kids’ athletics was hosted in Kitgum, while the FEASSA qualifier and the ball games and special needs events were hosted in Mukono and Soroti, respectively.

The kids’ athletics in Kitgum attracted over 5,000 athletes, while the ball games in Soroti gathered 7,000 athletes from 153 local governments, which Bwambale says requires increased government funding for better talent identification and development plans.