Patricia Apolot beat Slovakia's Victoria Lipianska in the full contact category while Shakey Mubiru defeated Hungary's Sandor Joo through a unanimous decision by the three judges. Their colleague Alex Masiko lost to Csaba Gyorfy in the K1 category.
According to their coach Adam Boumadi, the team did exceptionally in Hungary and helped to put Uganda on the map. "This is a good team. Mubiru is new to international competition but he fought well and won his category. Alex, who had not fought for two years and had never been to Europe to compete also did well even though he lost in his category.
With more opportunities like these, he should be able to go on and win many competitions.
In June, HIMA Cement handed over a 70 million sponsorship deal to the team which included a 50 million one year sponsorship package for Patricia Apolot who is the reigning Female Lightweight World Kick-boxing champion. The rest of the cash package amounting to UGX20 million went to cover travel and other expenses for the rest of the team that comprised Alex Matsiko (International champion Lightmiddleweight) and Shakey Mubiru (Uganda welterweight champion) for the global tournament.
Allan Ssemakula the Marketing Director HIMA Cement, said that the company strives to support initiatives that share the same values. "At HIMA, we identify with people that have grit, zeal, determination and a hunger for success and that is the potential we saw in this young kickboxing team. We could not be prouder to be associated with this kick boxing team because they fought strong opponents and still came out on top."
Coach Boumadi said that HIMA Cement must be commended for coming in to support this team at the time it did. "Without their support, we would have never been able to attend this competition and would not have put Uganda on the map. By the time we left Hungary, everyone was talking about Uganda. The kickboxing sport does not have many competitions, the support from both the fans and sponsors is very low and yet it has great potential to grow and make Uganda an even bigger attraction for kickboxing. Therefore I would like to thank HIMA Cement so much for this support." Said Boumadi,
"Today, we pledge to continue supporting the sport in order to give a firm foundation for sports and sportsmen in the country achieve true greatness. We therefore encourage Patricia, Alex and Mubiru to continue to dream big because they have got the power to achieve great things." Said Ssemakula.
