National athletics trials: coach Ngaimoko pleads for quality facilities

The sixth trial in the National athletics calendar will take place on Saturday at Uganda Christian University Mukono with local athletes still targeting Olympic qualification.

With Mukono not using electronic timing because the institution has a tinder track, the most affected remain the sprinters. Former national sprinter and Uganda Police coach Ali Ngaimoko has appealed for the sprinters to be taken to Kenya for more quality facilities.

“I do not think we are doing very badly as far as sprints are concerned. Right now, the challenge that we all know is that our top sprinters have to go to Nairobi because of the issue of the track. I think by next year, if our track is ready we shall be somewhere. For now, we are not so bad and we have tried as much as possible to take the good athletes to Nairobi,” Ngaimoko explained.

At the moment, Alabama University-based Tarsis Orogot continues to be the best sprinter in the country and his success is attributed to the access he has to good facilities and coaches.

“I believe that if all our sprinters could have the access that Tarsis is having, we would be able to produce more top-quality athletes. We want to have some of the sprinters also go to Europe and that is the advantage facilities would give us,” he explained.

While the issues of the facilities are being sorted out he still emphasizes the need for grassroots development because it’s the one thing that will allow the country to cast their net wide.

“We are trying to do a lot of grassroots training and not just in sprints but other track disciplines and field events like shot put, javelin and discus. Uganda used to be strong in those as well. We have to do talent identification from the grassroots and I am pretty sure if the field is done, we shall be able to see a difference,” he explained.