By: Kayiira Jackson
The 2024 edition of Eastern Africa University Games climaxed on Friday, 20th December, 2024 at Maseno University with Ndejje University winning the overall trophy for the 8th time in history.
The Luweero District based University continued to prove that they own the gold medal template, they secured 34 gold medals, 35 silvers and 29 bronze medals to leave Maseno with 98 medals in total.
This edition, despite winning the overall trophy, their medal tally have declined compared to that of last edition where they collected 59 gold medals and a total of 129. Their sports official commented about that;
“True our medal tally declined compared to that of 2022 when we hosted but this is because we traveled to another country where we have a budget limit compared to home where we were hosts, we had luxury to register athletes in almost every sport.” Ndejje University Sports Official told this website.
Kenyan university, United States International University in Africa took the second position with 17 gold medals, Uganda Christian University came third with 15 gold medals, the best performance for the Mukono based University and the sports official, Samuel Lukaire revealed the reason as to why they have posted a better performance in the 13th edition.
“I think, this is one of our best performances, in fact, we have entered a big number, we managed to have a contingent of 170 people, we also managed to feature in disciplines we were not taking part before, so I am happy that we have managed to collect 15 gold medals compared to 2022 when we struggled to get medals, a d I think, we’re going to build on this going forward.” Said Samuel Lukaire, UCU sports official
The other Ugandan Universities that performed better this season are; Makerere University with 14 gold medals, Gulu University with eight gold medals, Makerere University Business School left with seven medals, Kampala International University went with six, Kampala University took four gold medals, Bishop Stuart took three, Uganda Martyrs University settled from one gold medal, they won from Football,MUST secured one, the rest went with silver and bronze medals respectively.
“In previous championship, Kampala has been declining but I can say this time round we have performed better and this performance will help us to go back where we’re supposed to be.” Mugalu Carl Augustine, Kampala University Dean of Students.
“We have performed well, collected 14 gold medals, so I thank the management of Makerere University and the players who have performed to this level but what I have realized Ndejje is beating us because they come with many individual sport disciplines, we are going to improve on that come next time.” Miiro Brian, Makerere University sports tutor.
According to organisers, the 14th edition shall be hosted by Tanzania in 2026.
The medal ranking;
1. NDEJJE UNIVERSITY [UGA] 34(gold) 35(silver) 29(bronze) 98 (total)
2. USIU-AFRICA[KEN] 17 9 23 49
3. UGANDA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY [UGA] 15 10 7 32
4. MAKERERE UNIVERSITY[UGA] 14 19 20 53
5. JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY[KEN] 10 12 11 33
6. MASENO UNIVERSITY[KEN] 8 10 22 40
7. GULU UNIVERSITY[UGA] 8 5 8 21
8. MAKERERE UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL [UGA] 7 8 3 18
9. MOUNT KENYA UNIVERSITY [KEN] 7 5 14 26
10. KENYATTA UNIVERSITY[KEN] 7 4 4 15
11. KAMAPALA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY[UGA] 6 6 8 20
12 UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI[KEN] 5 11 8 24
13.KAMPALA UNIVERSITY[UGA] 4 6 8 18
14. MASINDE MULIRO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY[KEN] 4 2 2 8
15. BISHOP STUART UNIVERSITY[UGA] 3 4 2 9
16. UNIVERSITY OF ELDORET[KEN] 3 2 3 8
17. KIBABII UNIVERSITY[KEN] 2 1 9 12
18. UGANDA MARTYRS UNIVERSITY[UGA] 1 2 0 3
19. MERU UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY [KEN] 1 1 2 4
20. MBARARA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY[UGA] 1 1 0 2
21. TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF KENYA[KEN] 1 0 0 1
22. TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MOMBASA[KEN] 1 0 0 1
23. KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY[UGA] 0 4 4 8
24. KISII UNIVERSITY[KEN] 0 1 5 6
25. MOI[KEN] 0 1 2 3
26. ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY IN UGANDA[UGA] 0 0 2 2
27. BUGEMA UNIVERSITY[UGA] 0 0 1 1
28. MUNI UNIVERSITY[UGA] 0 0 1 1
29. KCA UNIVERSITY[KEN] 0 0 1 1
30. MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON UNIVERSITY [UGA] 0 0 1 1
31. BUSITEMA UNIVERSITY [UGA] 0 0 1 1
32. MOSHI CO-OPERATIVE UNIVERSITY [TAN] 0 0 1 1
