Kampala, April 20: Three more Ugandan athletes have disappeared in Australia after the conclusion of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Charles Bakkabulindi, minister of state for sports said on Thursday that the three did not board the plane to return home, Xinhua reported.
The three who disappeared include Regan Ssimbwa, Nasir Bashir and table tennis female player Halima Nambozo.
This brings the number to five Ugandans who disappeared during this sports event. Last week two weightlifters Irene Kasubo and Kalidi Batuusa disappeared.
Bakkabulindi said that this behaviour may make it difficult for countries to give Ugandan athletes visas to attend international sports events.
"We are also going to screen players more, so that we are sure athletes will not disappear when they travel to represent the country. We must become tough with this matter," the minister said.
Robert Jjagwe, Chairman of the Uganda Table Tennis Association said it is sad that one of their gifted female players had chosen to vanish.
Besides Uganda, athletes from Rwanda, Cameroon and Sierra Leone are reported to have vanished during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Authorities in Australia said they will only start looking for the athletes who disappeared during the Games when their visas expire on May 15.
Uganda finished in 15th place after sending a team of 69 athletes and competed in 11 disciplines.
Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei won two gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m, while Stella Chesang bagged the women's 10,000m gold medal and Mercyline Chelangat bagged a bronze in the same race.
Boxer Juma Miiro picked a bronze medal in the 46-49kg weight category.
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RJD surprise element in J’khand polls, party candidates leading in 5 of 6 assembly seats
Ranchi(PTI): The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has emerged as a surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates leading in five of the six seats where the party is contesting, according to trends available on the Election Commission's website on Saturday.
RJD candidates in five assembly seats were leading over sitting BJP legislators.
In 2019, RJD had secured only the Chatra seat where its nominee Satyanand Bhokta won.
In Deoghar, RJD’s Suresh Paswan was leading by 19,581 votes over his nearest rival and BJP's sitting MLA Narayan Das after the third round of counting.
RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav was ahead by 19,867 votes in Godda over BJP MLA Amit Kumar Mandal after the sixth round of counting.
In Koderma, RJD nominee Subhash Prasad Yadav, who was out on bail, was leading by a margin of 3,471 votes over BJP’s sitting legislator Neera Yadav.
Subhas Prasad Yadav, considered to be one of the close aides of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, was recently granted bail by the Supreme Court in a money laundering case.
Party’s Naresh Prasad Singh was leading by 5,159 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP’s Bishrampur MLA Ramchandra Chandravanshi.
RJD's Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav was also leading from Hussainabad by 8,213 votes after the fourth round of counting over BJP MLA Kamlesh Kumar Singh.
Party’s candidate Rashmi Prakash, however, was trailing from Chatra by 3,776 votes.
Bhokta did not contest the elections this time, and his daughter-in-law Prakash was given a ticket.
