KAMPALA - Parliament honoured double Olympic and World champion Stephen Kiprotich on Tuesday, saying he has done Uganda proud. Kiprotich won gold medal in the marathon event at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow on Saturday. In a motion moved by education minister Jessica Alupo and seconded by state minister for primary education Kamanda Bataringaya, MPs showered Kiprotich with praises for ‘putting Uganda on the map’ and recommended that government declares him Uganda’s good will ambassador for sports. Kiprotich, 24, won his first gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, 40 years after the late John Akii Bua won the first gold medal for Uganda in the 110m hurdles at the Munich Games in a world record time of 47.82 seconds. “We are very grateful to you Kiprotich it is because of you that Uganda emerged the 12th at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, we congratulate you and thank you for marketing Uganda,” said Bataringaya. During the tribute, the MPs reminded government of its earlier pledge to build high attitude training grounds in Lira and Kapchorwa in honor of gold medalists John Akii Bua, Dorcus Inzikuru and Stephen Kiprotich. “The only way we can honor Kiprotich is by government fulfilling its earlier pledges of building training centers for the athletes in the country because we have many upcoming athletes but they don’t have where to train from,” said Cecilia Ogwala the MP Dokolo district. The MPs also resolved that government takes the lead in collecting funds for appreciating Kiprotich for winning Uganda yet another gold medal in a row. Kiprotich who was present in the parliamentary chambers during his special tribute that lasted two hours was accompanied by his colleagues who also travelled to Moscow for the games. The MPs resolved that government increases the budget for sports by 30% to facilitate sports activities in the country.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 05:48:52 +0000
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