User:Lule75/Badminton in Uganda

Uganda Badminton Association was created in the 1960's. Badminton as a game was mainly played by the expatriate community, mostly by clubs and schools around Kampala and Jinja. The headquarters in Kampala. Uganda has been a dominant force since 1980 to date in East and Central Africa.

Badminton is in Olympic Sport since 1992 but is still considered a minor sport in our member associations in regions and on the continent when it comes to popularity, participation, media coverage and performance standards. In January 2007 in the All Africa Games in Algiers (Algeria) Badminton was the first sport to earn Uganda as a country its first medal, a Bronze won by Edwin Ekiring. In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Uganda Badminton Association managed to qualify an athlete for the first time in Olympic history.

The political turmoil in the country during the 1970's negatively affected the game since most of the players and administrators left the country and this resulted in Badminton halls being turned into offices, clinics, etc. During the early 1980's the only place Badminton could be played and watched was at Makerere University in Kampala, where students organized and competed in Badminton at inter-hall level.

The spirit of Badminton was rejuvenated in the mid-eighties and a number of clubs were established and started playing the game. Since then the game has steadily grown taking root in schools very well.

The Uganda Badminton Association is a member of the World Badminton Federation (BWF) – previously known as International Badminton Federation (IBF) until 2004 - which is the governing body globally since 1990.

Today the game has grown from a few schools and clubs to over 80 schools, 20 higher institutions of learning and 10 clubs. It caters for all age groups right from 4 years to over 70 years and for both men and women.

The UBA set up its secretariat at Lugogo which is fully furnished but with one part time officer as a Chief Executive. The game is governed by an Executive Committee of 9 people and a patron.

The UBA in its drive to make the game a truly national one, decided to spread to all the regions of the country and to this effect appointed regional development officers.

ref http://www.badmintonuganda.org/index.php/history