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Fadilah sets Olympics target after conquering Africa
Badminton ace Fadilah Shamika has her eyes on Paris. PHOTO/JOHN BATANUDDE
What you need to know:
The ranking is the highest ever for any Ugandan badminton player and also saw her move to 116th in the world.
One wonders how much sporting success the country can achieve when stakeholders combine efforts to raise sports personalities.
Using the year 2023 as an example, family backing, Uganda Badminton Association, the Education and Sports ministry and National Council of Sports all combined efforts helped elevate Fadilah Shamika.
Those efforts saw her reach the top of the continental badminton rankings released at the tail end of December.
"The year 2023 was a rollercoaster of emotions, a lot of ups and downs but it was not a bad year as I started off with no rank and no tournament experience but ended up with the highest rank and ability to compete with higher individuals in the world," Fadilah said in an interview.
The ranking is the highest ever for any Ugandan badminton player and also saw her move to 116th in the world.
She is now already focusing on what could even be a more eventful year where she is targeting the All Africa Badminton Championship to be held in Egypt in February and the African Games in Ghana in March.
This could set her on the way to the Paris Olympics where she also currently leads in the tournament ranking points for the lone place to represent the continent.
"I’m keeping positive towards that as the next year's African games will decide that for me," she says rather modestly considering her current position of dominance.
Her success owes much to her participation in a number of tournaments ranked by the world body as well as her performances.
She started off the year with a women's singles gold when she defeated the more experienced South African Johanita Scholtz when the two met in February in the women's singles final at the All African Badminton seniors Championships.
The South African was by then ranked fourth on the continent and 36 places ahead of the 225th ranked Fadilah in the World Rankings.
And all indicators pointed at another Scholtz win when the South African won the opening set 14-21.
Fadilah however fought back to win the subsequent sets 21-14, 21-16 after 37 minutes and become the county’s first champion at the event.
Fadilah is currently in Malaysia for a training programme organised by Badminton Confederation Africa (BCA).
Key to her Olympic qualification hopes are the number of tournaments she will be able to feature in before the Olympics that start in July according to Uganda Badminton Association CEO Simon Mugabi.
“She has the potential to qualify because she is extremely hardworking and has strong backing from her family,” Mugabi told Daily Monitor.
Fadilah has so far accumulated 16,140 points collected from 17 tournaments.
South African Scholtz is second with 15,909 points accumulated from 15 recognized events.
There are three other Ugandans in the African top 10 with Husna Kobugabe fourth, Gladys Mbabazi eighth and Tracy Naluwooza ninth.
Fadilah’s partnership with Kobugabe has accumulated the second highest points in the doubles category on the continent.
Fadilah’s partnership with Naluwooza has meanwhile also accumulated the third highest points according to the BCA rankings.
2023 Fadilah tournament medals
•All Africa Senior Championship 2023 Women’s Singles Gold medallist
•Benin international 2023 Women’s singles and doubles Bronze medallist•Uganda international series Women’s singles bronze medallist.
•Zambia international Women’s doubles bronze medallist
•Botswana international Women’s Singles and Doubles Bronze medallist.
