by James Ssekandi
Kampala
The 2009 Zone V regional women’s basketball runners-up, KCC Leopards have reason to smile after landing one of the wild-card slots for the FIBA African Ladies Championship in Benin.
Bob Buga, the Vice President Federation of Uganda Basketball Association (FUBA) confirmed to the Daily Monitor the latest development in relation to KCC’s invite for the Africa Women Club Championship showpiece in October.
“As FUBA we can proudly say that we are grateful, it shows that there has been some solid improvement which is being recognised even on the continent. So we expect FIBA to write to KCC on guidelines and requirements about the tournament,” said Buga.
Zone V tournament might have had the atmosphere of a major championship but it was also the regional qualifier for Africa’s club showpiece, with only winners Kenya’s Cooperative Bank and KPA being guaranteed of qualification.
Leopards benefited from a similar arrangement last year when they received a last minute invitation for the women’s continental tournament in Kenya.
“We are very happy about this invitation, but winning the league would be the ideal preparation ahead of the African event” said KCC’s manager Joy Olinga.
FUBA is also is still hopeful that men’s team Kyambogo Warriors who finished second in Zone 5 event will get a wildcard for the men’s championship due December in Rwanda.“So many things could change as some teams could pull-out,” Buga said.
Meanwhile, Century Bottling Company under their Sprite brand has injected Shs9million in the All-Star-game on Sunday at YMCA.