Uganda Shines in Morogoro as Schools Return from FEASSA Games with Rich Medal Haul
Uganda may have narrowly missed out on reclaiming the overall FEASSA Games title, but the country’s schools delivered a strong performance at the 2026 Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association Games in Morogoro, Tanzania.
The 23rd edition of the regional championship concluded on Saturday, August 22, with Kenya taking the overall secondary schools crown after edging Uganda in a tightly contested medal race.
Kenya finished with 20 gold medals, one more than Uganda’s 19, to dethrone the defending champions.
Despite falling short of the overall crown, Uganda’s showing demonstrated the depth of talent in the country’s school sports system, with Ugandan schools winning medals across football, swimming, athletics, basketball, netball, volleyball and several other disciplines.
Kitende leads Uganda’s charge
At the forefront of Uganda’s campaign was St Mary’s Kitende, which capped its outstanding tournament with boys’ football gold.
Kitende defeated hosts Morogoro Secondary School 2-1 in the final at Jamhuri Stadium, completing a memorable campaign and giving Uganda one of its biggest victories of the championship.
Kitende was among the schools that stood out individually, collecting three gold medals according to the school level medal record provided by the Ugandan delegation.
Kibuli Secondary School was another outstanding performer, also collecting three gold medals alongside a silver, while Seroma Christian High School produced a broad medal haul of one gold, two silver and one bronze.
The success was not limited to the traditional sporting powerhouses.
Schools from different parts of the country contributed to Uganda’s medal tally, underlining the increasingly diverse nature of school sports in Uganda.
Swimming produces regional dominance
One of Uganda’s strongest performances came in the swimming pool.
The Ugandan swimming team dominated its competition, finishing comfortably at the top of the swimming standings after a medal filled two days.
Uganda’s swimming success was reflected in the school medal tally, with two gold medals recorded for the swimming contingent.
The performance reinforced Uganda’s growing strength in aquatic sports and provided another example of how school competitions are becoming an important pathway for identifying and developing young talent.
Athletics provides another medal boost
Athletics also contributed significantly to Uganda’s overall campaign.
Uganda’s athletics contingent had already accumulated 12 medals midway through the championship, demonstrating the depth of the country’s talent on the track and field.
The final medal records provided by the Ugandan delegation show the athletics team finishing with two silver and one bronze medal.
However, athletics was one area where Uganda faced particularly strong competition from Kenya. Kenya dominated the track and field programme, collecting 56 medals in the secondary schools category alone 31 gold, 22 silver and three bronze.
That dominance proved decisive in Kenya’s eventual push for the overall championship.
Football remains Uganda’s stronghold
If there was one sport that once again underlined Uganda’s strength, it was football.
St Mary’s Kitende’s boys claimed gold after defeating the hosts, while Rines Secondary School emerged as champions in girls’ football.
Rines defeated Tanzania’s Ziba 1-0 in the girls’ final, continuing Uganda’s dominance in the discipline.
The girls’ competition had already guaranteed Uganda an all Ugandan final, with Rines and Amus College booking their places in the decisive match.
Amus College also returned home with a strong medal collection, featuring gold, silver and bronze in the supplied school by school record.
The performances showed that Uganda’s football strength is not concentrated in one institution, but spread across several schools investing heavily in youth development.
A medal winning army
The wider medal distribution tells an even bigger story.
According to the medal information supplied from the Ugandan delegation, 28 schools and sporting contingents featured among the country’s medal winners.
Among them were:
- St Mary’s Kitende
- Rines Secondary School
- Amus College School
- Bukedea Comprehensive South
- Boni Consili Girls Vocational
- St Cyprian Kyabakadde
- Seroma Christian
- Busoga College Mwiri
- Sacred Heart
- Panyandoli Self Help School
- Namugongo Vocational
- Wampeewo Ntake
- Gombe Secondary School
- Hamdan Islamic
- St Noa
- Jinja Secondary School
- Ntale School
- Kibuli Secondary School
- Mbogo High
- Mbogo Mixed
- Kigezi High
- Muzza High
- Tororo Girls
- Standard High
- Mukono Kings
- Ngora High
Athletics and swimming also featured prominently in the medal distribution.
Based on the supplied school level figures, these results amount to 17 gold, 16 silver and 15 bronze medals across the listed schools and contingents. The official FEASSA country medal table, however, records Uganda with 19 gold medals overall, showing that the supplied school list does not include every medal winning entry or category.
Badminton is also specifically excluded from the supplied school list, further explaining the difference.
The bigger picture
Uganda’s second place finish should therefore not be viewed simply as a failure to defend the FEASSA crown.
The country competed in a championship that brought together 413 teams and 5,548 participants across 51 sporting disciplines, making Morogoro a major test of Uganda’s sporting depth.
Uganda ultimately collected 19 gold medals, while Kenya finished with 20. The narrow margin demonstrates just how competitive the regional school sports landscape has become.
More importantly, Uganda continued to demonstrate strength in team sports while also producing individual performances in athletics and swimming.
The challenge now is to turn these school level successes into sustained national sporting development.
A near miss, but a promising future
Uganda travelled to Morogoro hoping to retain the FEASSA crown.
It returned without the overall trophy, but with plenty of evidence that the country’s school sports programme remains one of East Africa’s strongest.
From Kitende’s football triumph to Rines’ continued dominance in girls’ football, from swimming supremacy to the medal contributions of schools such as Kibuli, Seroma Christian, Amus College and Bukedea Comprehensive, Uganda’s campaign was built on contributions from across the country.
Kenya may have reclaimed the crown by the smallest of margins.
But with 19 gold medals and a broad spread of medal winning schools, Uganda leaves Morogoro with a clear message for the region, the defending champions may have lost the crown, but they remain very much a force in East African school sport.
The next FEASSA Games in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2027 will offer Uganda another opportunity to turn this narrow defeat into a comeback.
