One more Ugandan athlete qualifies for Beijing Olympics

KAMPALA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- One more Ugandan athlete has booked his ticket to the Beijing Olympic Games as Geoffrey Kusuro hit the qualifying mark at the Hengelo Grand Prix in the Netherlands over the weekend.

Kusuro needed to slash off 22 seconds from his personal best of 13:42.0, to hit the 5,000m Group A Olympics qualifying mark of 13: 21.50. He, however, cut 24 seconds off that time in the race won by Kenenisa Bekele in 12:58.94.

The Olympics entry guidelines stipulate that a country can only enter more than one athlete in an event, if all the entries have qualified in Group A. Moses Kipsiro had already qualified in Group A hence to qualify, any one in the 5,000m event, it needed Kusuro to run inside the group A standard.

Stephen Kiprotich was 2.2 seconds off the mark for the same distance. But his country manager, Godfrey Nuwagaba, said he is being targeted to compete in the 10,000m next week. He is expected to qualify with Wilson Busienei, who did not finish in Hengelo.

The highlight of the event on Saturday night was Benjamin Kiplagat, who reduced the national record by 1.37 seconds as he clocked 8:14.29 to finish second behind Kenyan Richard Mateelong in the men's 3,000m steeplechase.

Boniface Kiprop also ensured that he is on the list when he clocked 27:19.26, deep inside the 10,000m Group A qualifying mark of 27:50.00, while Abraham Chepkirwok finished fourth in an 800m race, where the first six were only separated by 0.9 seconds.

Kusuro's feat brings to six Ugandan athletes that have qualified for the Games after Alex Malinga (marathon), Chepkirwok (800m), Kipsiro (5,000m), Kiplagat (3,000mSC) and Kiprop (10,000m).

Meanwhile, the sole Olympic-bound boxer Ronald Serugo will not take part in a pre-Olympics boxing tournament in Chinese Taipei because the Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation (UABF) lacks funds.

In Taipei, all boxers that qualified for the Beijing Olympics are required to assemble for the tournament and will be having sparring bouts and medical check ups ahead of the Olympic Games in August.

The light flyweight boxer won a bonze medal in the Olympics qualifying tournament in Namibia early this year and is the only one to have qualified for the Olympic Games out of the five-man Bombers team that traveled to Windhoek.

However, UABF publicity secretary Sande Musoke revealed that the federation is set to send Serugo to the All African Boxing Championship in Mauritius due June 24.