Uganda sends team for Africa Youth Athletics Championship in Mauritius

Uganda' s five-man team left on Monday to take part in the 2nd Africa Youth Athletics Championships slated for April 23-26 in Mauritius.

Dominic Otuchet, President of the Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) told Xinhua on Monday that the four athletes together with Coach Nalis Bugingo decided to leave early so that they can acclimatize to the conditions in Mauritius.

"We did not have enough money but decided to send four athletes because we believe this is a good championship which helps us develop our young athletes into future stars," Otuchet told Xinhua in an interview.

He said Mercy Laker will be in the discus competition, while Janat Chemusto will participate in the 15,000m and 3,000m races. The two boys on the team include Abel Chebet and Kevin Kibet.

"We expect to put up a good performance because the athletes have worked hard during training," said Coach Bugingo.

At the 1st African Youth Athletics Championships held in Warri State in Nigeria in 2013, Uganda only managed to get silver medal in the triple jump through Felix Watmon who finished behind Nigeria' s Fabianime Edoki.

The first edition of the biennial athletics competition for African athletes aged fifteen to seventeen saw the hosts Nigeria top the medals table with twelve gold medals and 33 medals overall. The next most successful countries were Egypt (eight golds and 16 in total) and Ethiopia (26 medals, seven of them gold). Endi