The U18 Afrobasket championship will be tipping on 5th August in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. That is less than 48 hours from today, but there remains a lingering question; are the girls ready?

Path to the championship

Uganda qualified for the championship having reached the semifinals in 2024. That team had a successful run but were eliminated by Nigeria in a very tightly contested game. However, their run to the semifinals meant that the 2026 group needn’t play the qualifiers. This was because an automatic ticket to this year’s championship had been awarded.

Preparation

The team started their preparations in December 2025 where 1 week trials were held. A number of players turned up and from these, about 30 wereselected. That number and some new faces had another camp which was in January. Some new faces joined and once again, the team was trimmed down to about 20 people.

During the first term holidays (May) of 2026, the team was supposed to have a 2 weeks’ camp but they ended up practicing for about 5 days as the sessions were interrupted following the news of the untimely passing of Maxine Anyango.

In June, the team was supposed to have another camp as they prepared for the qualifiers which were going to be played at the Hoima Stadium, in Uganda. This qualifier was a way of preparing themselves for the championship as they already had a ticket.

However, the venue of the tournament was shifted to Cairo, Egypt and transporting the team there, when it was not initially planned for, was very costly. As thus, the team did not go and has not had any training since May.

Setbacks

The team has not trained together since May. Matter of fact, the team has never fully trained together. There hasn’t been preparation for the team in regards to what they will play on the field. Their situation is akin to the one the U18 boys had when they went to play the qualifiers in Egypt; they met there and that is when they had their first training session as a unit.

There has also been refusal of some key players to travel. In the plans, some of the key players that Uganda was counting on were Shiphrah Kiranda, Joy Auma, Madina and Anena. However, due to the school schedule and the upcoming FEASSA games, the schools did not allow the players to go with the National team. As such, core pieces will be missed.

What makes things funny is that, as of Saturday 1st August, the players did not know when they were going to travel. Some players do not know if they are on the team.

Hopefully it won’t be the similar situation to what happened to the U23 3×3 teams as they got to know about their travel on the day of travel.

Uganda’s opponents and path

Uganda is in pool A with Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya and Central African Republic. The top 2 teams will qualify automatically qualify to the quarterfinals while the 2 best third placed teams shall earn the final 2 tickets to the next stage.

In Uganda’s Pool, only cote d’Ivoire has won a medal at this competition and their only medal came in 2000. Uganda is the other country that has come close as they reached the semifinals on 2 separate occasions, most recently in 2024. Going by history, Uganda has had some success and when you compare to the opponents, they should be having the edge.

Squad

The team has yet to be officially announce d to the public but some of the players that have been rumored to be apart include; Mary Hazel Ssengendo, Vanessa Nakalembe, Melissa Taliba, Maria Nanyonga, Mwesigwa Shivan among others.

Fixtures (EAT)

Uganda vs Kenya 6th August, 21:30

Cote d’Ivoire vs Uganda , 8th August, 19:00

Uganda vs Central African Republic, 10th August, 16:30

At the beginning of the year, one would say that the team which had been projected had the potential to reach the finals of this competition. This is because the players are very experienced in both the NBL and Division One and most importantly, they have a lot of skill.However, with the disorganization and lack of preparation, it will be very hard for the team to achieve their potential.

News about the travel has not been communicated publicly but it was rumored that by the evening of 4th, the team will have set off. Uganda will be looking to win their first ever medal at the U18 Afrobasket Championship.