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Mpindi rallies Mbarara to embrace Paralympic sport
Mpindi addressing the teams at Kakyeka Stadium Thursday. PHOTO BY ABDUL-NASSER SSEMUGABI
MBARARA. Uganda Paralympic Committee boss Bumali Mpindi has commended Mbarara for hosting this year's National Disability Sports Gala and asked them to further embrace the Paralympic movement.
"We had a very big problem in the whole of Western Uganda that people did not know about disability sports," Mpindi said at the opening ceremony at Kakyeka Stadium.
"Now there's a growing awareness in Mbarara and that's a very big achievement for us. And we need to keep it up."
The gala is hosted on a rotational basis by regions to break social barriers and create awareness about the games: Kampala 2014, Busia 2016, Gulu 2017 and Mbarara 2018.
Action at the 2018 edition started proper this morning, with Gulu's Richard Ocira winning the 100m wheelchair race in 21:17 seconds. Bosco Tumwine and Elia Matsiko, both from Mbarara followed in that order.
Then Mpindi added that disability sport has potential to grow but it depends a great deal on sponsorship, which is still lacking "due to negative attitude."
Track and field events , wheelchair basketball, goal ball, amputee soccer, with teams like Kyambogo University, Kisoro, Isingiro, Arua, among continued through the day.
