Wananchi Hockey Club won the 2025 U19 Uganda Hockey Juniors Cup for both the boys and the girls after the teams defeated Kampala Hockey Club and Kampala Red Hockey Club 1-0 and 3-1 in the girls and boys finals respectively.
The two-day tournament played at the Lugogo Hockey Club in Kampala between 17th and 18th January 2025 had slightly over 70 participants from 5 girls’ teams and 6 boys’ teams, that are subsidiaries of the known Hockey League clubs.
The Girls’ clubs represented were Wananchi, Kampala, Badgers, Thunders and Weather head hockey clubs. For the boys’ it was Kampala Red, Kampala Blue, Wananchi, Rockets, Weatherhead 1 and 2, Badgers and Thunders Hockey clubs.
The teams were drawn into groups (one group for the girls and two groups for the boys) where they played round-robin games with the top two going straight to the final for the girls and the semifinals for the boys.
For the girls, Wananchi won all its group games, topping the group with 6 pts as Kampala finished second with one win two draws one loss giving the club 2 pts. In the final Wananchi got the better of Kampala winning the game 1:0 to claim the 2025 U19 Uganda Hockey Juniors Cup in the girl’s category.
For the boys in group A Kampala Red won all its group games collecting 9 pts and setting up a semifinal match with the second placed in group B Thunders who won 2 of their group games lost the other and finished with 6 pts.
Badgers topped Group B with 7 pts from 2 wins and a draw to set up a semifinal encounter with Group A’s second places Wananchi who won two group games and lost one finishing with 3 points.
The boys’ semifinals were the most entertaining of the whole tournament as all teams held on to their game forcing the games to go into penalty shootouts. Kampala Red knocked out Thunders 5:4 on penalties after normal time ended goalless for all. In the other semifinal, Wananchi got the better of Badgers 3:1 on penalties after normal time in a one-all draw.
In the final Wananchi made light work of Kampala Red defeating them 3:1 and hence claiming the 2025 U19 Uganda Hockey Juniors Cup in the boy’s category.
For Individual awards, Winnie Nandi from Kampala Hockey Club received the Player of the Tournament award and Wananchi’s Nakato Janet with 6 goals was crowned the top scorer for the girl’s category.
In the boy’s category, Shafiq Byamukama was crowned the player of the tournament as Innocent Tumukunde shared the top scorer’s award with him, with 4 goals each.
Overall, all the kids put up a great show in the two days, with intense and entertaining competition for the revellers who cared to watch. This year’s U19 Uganda Hockey Juniors Cup acted as a precursor, a sieving platform for selection and part of the preparation for the Africa Junior Cup slated for April 2025. The Africa Junior Cup will be hosted in Namibia and is organized by the Africa Hockey Federation. The tournament will also be a pre-qualifier for the FIH World CUP. Where if Uganda performs well and finishes in the top 2, it will progress to the FIH World Cup.
On the sidelines of the Junior Cup, event partners Ruby Hospital together with the Hockey Association Medical Commission held a first aid training session.
On top of the Africa Junior Cup, Uganda Hockey is also preparing for the Africa Cup for Club Champions is to be held from 30th January to 7th February 2025 at Port Said Egypt. Kampala Hockey Club Swans Women’s team. Winners of the 2023 National Hockey League are the only slotted team from Uganda.
