The four months National Pool Open Championships come to an end this weekend.
The event which attracted 10,240 participants from 320 qualifying centers across the country has been characterized with surprises in the qualifying rounds in which key Pool personalities were dropped in the qualifiers.
Pool stars including Moses Arinaitwe, Joseph Mutawe, and Ivan Kanyesigye who were finalists in 2011, 2013 and 2014 respectively could not survive the gruesome qualifying rounds.
By last weekend, the regional qualifiers were played off producing the final set of regional qualified participants.
A total of 120 sharp eyed, tough and spirited regional champions emerged from the 40 regions across that country.
The 120 regional stars have this morning been added to Uganda’s top eight (8) seeded players making a total of 128 players who will battle for this year’s National Champion title in a grand final scheduled for Saturday, October 22 at the Lugogo Indoor Arena in Kampala.
The 128 stars have this morning been drawn to confirm the fixture for Saturday’s grand final.
The transparent, free and fair draws conducted by sports media personalities including among others George Katongole, Darren Kyeyune, Aisha Nasanga, Patrick Kanyomozi were supervised by the PAU officials and witnessed by pool players and other members of the pool fraternity at Rock Catalina in Ntinda.
Most notably is the Group A’s first and early morning fixture to watch between Amos Ndyagumanawe the defending champion and Fred Namanya aka Bonde the 2009 Champion.
Ndyagumanawe who seeks to break the jinx of this championship where so far no one has successfully defended the national title faces an uphill task in Bonde who is determined to drive himself home in the grand prize later that day.
In the same group will be the last fixture between Silas Mawejje the top scorer of League One and Seed 8 Kasozi Joseph.
The thrilling and highly competitive finale games will kick off at exactly 9:00am and end with the prize giving ceremony at 10:00pm to be graced by Hon. Charles Bakabulindi, the State Minister for Sports.
The PAU Chairman, Farouk Wamala Kisuze, was happy to have explored new regions with a focus on Northern Uganda where the event hadn’t featured in previous years.
The new regions which were included in the event include Apac, Serere, Amuria, Moroto and Palisa.
Our strategy was to expand and take place to places it hadn’t been before. We are glad to have reached out to more people during the qualifying rounds and achieved one of our core objectives of growing the sport across the country.
On preparation and readiness, Kisuze confirmed that in collaboration with the event sponsor the organizers were ready and were eager to receive players from the various regions.
We shall receive all participants from upcountry and host them at Arch Apartments in Ntinda from where they will go to the MTN Arena for the grand final play offs on Saturday, 18th October 2016.
“The brand New Toyota Mark II Grande which is the ultimate prize of the day is ready and as usual, we expect to deliver an exciting and entertaining sporting experience in the finals” said Kisuze.
