FMU targets one rally as sports returns

Sports federations are laying strategies after the greenlight on the resumption of sports activities.

The President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, on Sunday night announced the reopening of sports activities. However, the decision came along with tight demands. 

Activities must be organised without spectators and all players involved must be tested for Covid-19 at least 72 hours before their scheduled competitions. 

With the anticipation, the local motorsport governing body FMU has embarked on plans to resume the championships. 

“What we have agreed upon as the federation is to first hold an engagement meeting with stakeholders.

“We want to first ascertain how ready the competitors and organisers are in terms of the new developments,” says Reynolds Kibira; Chairman of the Sport commission. 

The local rally and motocross season was suspended in March in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Kibira acknowledges that there will be challenges with requirements to hold  motorsports events.

“The SOPs make organising of events quite more expensive; the fact that it takes away the element of fans, meaning all burden is put on the organising club.

“Unlike motocross, for a rally we are looking at around 300 people involved in an event. But the biggest matter is, can we afford to test this people per event?” he ponders.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, only one motocross event was covered while two of seven rallies, Mbarara and Jinja, had been held.

However, the federation is looking forward to at least one event before end of the year. 

“For rally, the federation is targeting at least one event. And that event will be organised by a selected team. 

“The event will be an example for the clubs on what kind of events to organise post covid.

“We want to take the burden from the clubs especially those who had already started on preparations. The dynamics of their organisation completely changed after covid,” says Kibira.

Financial constrains remain a bigger challenge for the organisation or rallies. Several sponsors have been hit by the consequences of the pandemic. 

Fred Busulwa is currently leading the rally championship with 20 points ahead of Omar Mayanja while Hassan Alwi is in third.