Uganda Air Badminton National Team head coach William Kabindi has promised Uganda will bounce back after a painful early exit from the team event at the Africa Air Badminton Championship at Aero Beach.
Uganda’s title hopes on home sand in the team events were blown away on Wednesday after defeats to Burkina Faso and Mauritania left the hosts bottom of Group C.
“Today has been a sad day. We’ve lost two matches,” Kabindi said.
“Which is sad. That means we cannot proceed to the next round. So we are not getting out of the group stages.”
Uganda began the day with a narrow 60-53 defeat to Burkina Faso before Mauritania delivered the bigger blow in the evening, beating the hosts in both doubles and triples to condemn them to their first Air Badminton loss on home soil.
The Mauritania match started badly for Uganda when Muzafaru Lubega and Reagan Nsubuga lost the men’s doubles 15-10 after a costly communication lapse at the back line.
The women tried to repair the damage; Tracy Naluwoza, Gladys Mbabazi and Malha Musa were rotated, with Naluwoza and Mbabazi eventually dragging Uganda back to 34-34 in the women’s doubles.
But Mauritania held their nerve, edging the second half 15-14 to lead 44-39 on aggregate.
Uganda needed a big finish from Bruno Agaba, Lubega and Nsubuga in the men’s triples. Instead, the Mauritanian trio pulled away to win 16-7 and seal a 60-46 victory.
Kabindi blamed a lack of coordination for part of Uganda’s struggles, with some players returning from international tournaments while others had trained at home.
“A number of the team players I had were coming from international tournaments. The rest were training hard,” he said.
“But as you know, team events are played by everybody. So the coordination was not good enough.”
Uganda’s team campaign is over, but Kabindi sees the remaining individual events as a chance to respond.
“ Next are the individual/single events,” he said.
Uganda will field players in the men’s and women’s doubles and triples, with Kabindi hoping for a stronger showing.
“It’s a tougher tournament compared to the previous tournaments. But I’m positive that the players can put up a good show,” he said.
The team events championship has nine teams after the field was reduced from the expected 14, with Uganda drawn alongside Mauritania and Burkina Faso in Group C.
The early exit hurts, but Kabindi insists it will not break Uganda’s resolve.
“Every loss gives you something to learn. And we’ve learned a lot,” he said.
“Though we’ve failed to do what we were expected to do in the team events, badminton is a very difficult sport. It requires a lot of coordination.”
Then came his rallying cry.
“But we’re not giving up. We’re not giving up. We’re going to win more championships.”
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