By: Kayiira Jackson
The biennial tournament that brings all Eastern Africa Universities in one place to compete for glory and supremacy in different sports disciplines, it’s 13th edition climaxed on Friday at Maseno University in Kenya.
For starters, out of the expected 50 Universities, 39 turned up for the event and 32 won medals of different levels from gold to bronze.
The 13th edition commenced on Monday 15, December and climaxed on Friday , 21 December 2024, the Universities competed in 19 different sports disciplines that include; Athletics, Chess, Badminton, Darts, Rugby, Netball, Goalball (adaptive sport), Table Tennis, tennis, Teakwondo, Woodball, Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Handball, Karate, Scrabble, Hockey and Swimming all the disciplines invited both sexes apart from Netball (female) and Rugby (male).
This championship had its opening ceremony on Tuesday 16th and the hosting University Vice Chancellor Prof. Julius Omondi Nyabundi was the Chief Guest.
In overall performance rankings, Ndejje University from Uganda retained the trophy after garnering 34 gold medals, 35 silvers and 29 bronze medal and the Luweero District based University took home 98 medals in total. This is the 8th time out of the 13, Ndejje University is lifting the overall trophy.
The United States International University in Africa (from Kenya) took the second position in the overall performance, the side that didn’t show up in the 12th edition held at Ndejje in Uganda, surprised many when it collected 17 gold medals, nine silvers and 23 bronze medals.
Uganda Christian University who didn’t performance well in the 12th edition, bounced back stronger in the 13th edition and the side that came with a contingent of 170 people, collected 15 gold medals beating Makerere University with a difference of one gold to take the third position on the table and Makerere settled for fourth.
The games were hosted on different sports grounds around Maseno University main campus though football, athletics and Swimming were hosted at distant places that’s Luanda, Yala and Kisumu City for Swimming and Athletics.
The numbers didn’t lie for team Uganda, it’s the country that sent the biggest contingent of 17 Universities and left Maseno with the most number of gold medals 103 gold medals compared to host nation’s 66 gold medals. Tanzania didn’t get any gold medal and it’s only Moshi Cooperative University that managed to get a bronze medal.
The 14th edition shall be hosted by Tanzania in 2026.
