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MTN Uganda Powers Return of Entebbe Women Open as Ladies’s Golf Good points Momentum » The Touchline Sports activities – The Panorama Uganda
Ladies’s golf in Uganda has obtained a major enhance after MTN Uganda formally confirmed its sponsorship of the 2026 Entebbe Women Open, reaffirming the telecom large’s long-term dedication to sports activities growth and feminine athlete empowerment.
The announcement was made on the Entebbe Clubhouse forward of the extremely anticipated event scheduled for February 26–28, 2026, on the historic Entebbe Membership. The championship, acknowledged on the World Newbie Golf Rating (WAGR) circuit, returns as one of many area’s most prestigious ladies’s newbie competitions.
After a one-year absence in 2025, the revival of the Entebbe Women Open indicators renewed momentum for each Entebbe Membership and the broader ladies’s golf ecosystem in Uganda.
Setting the Tempo for the 2026 Season
Because the opening Women Open on Uganda’s nationwide golf calendar, the event is predicted to set the aggressive tone for the 2026 season. Its timing additionally aligns strategically with Ladies’s Month in March and resonates with the Worldwide Ladies’s Day theme, “Give to Acquire,” which emphasizes funding in ladies as a pathway to accelerated equality and development.
Past competitors, the occasion displays a rising recognition that structured sponsorship, mentorship, and visibility are vital to unlocking the total potential of ladies’s sport.
Strong Event Format
The championship shall be contested on the scenic however demanding 18-hole Entebbe course throughout three aggressive tiers:
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Fundamental Women Occasion: February 26–28
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Bronze Class: February 27–28
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Subsidiary Occasion: February 28 (males, seniors, and women)
In a notable present of solidarity with the ladies’s championship, male contributors within the subsidiary class will tee off from the women’ tee bins.
Event actions started with follow rounds and media engagements on Wednesday, with the primary competitors teeing off Thursday. Friday will function the Bronze class alongside a curated networking expertise on the refurbished clubhouse earlier than the championship climaxes Saturday night with the standard nineteenth Gap prize ceremony.
MTN Indicators Strategic Funding
Talking on the launch, Justina Icabala, enterprise phase supervisor at MTN Uganda and crew lead of the MTN Women’ golfers, framed the sponsorship as a part of a broader nationwide growth agenda.
“MTN Uganda believes within the energy of sport to remodel lives, construct networks, and create alternative. Golf uniquely brings collectively enterprise, mentorship, and private development. Our continued assist displays our confidence within the ladies shaping this sport and the long-term worth it creates.”
Her remarks underscore MTN’s positioning of ladies’s golf not as a distinct segment exercise however as a high-potential development platform inside Uganda’s sporting panorama.
UGX 10 Million Prize Enhance Raises Stakes
This yr’s version boasts one of many strongest elite newbie fields in latest reminiscence, supported by a UGX 10 million elite reward bundle, a major uplift for the newbie ladies’s sport.
The improved prize construction is predicted to accentuate competitors ranges and drive larger efficiency requirements, whereas strengthening the event’s regional attraction.
Entebbe Membership Targets Regional Affect
Girl Captain Maureen Okura described the event’s return as a strategic milestone for the membership’s continental positioning.
“Reviving this World Newbie Golf Rating occasion reaffirms Entebbe Membership’s place on the regional and international newbie golf stage. It strengthens our worldwide visibility and helps the long-term sustainability of the membership.”
She additionally predicted a fiercely contested championship.
“We’re welcoming one of many strongest elite fields in recent times. With this degree of expertise, the result is genuinely unpredictable—and that’s what makes this version notably thrilling. We’re not ready for the way forward for ladies’s golf; we’re actively constructing it.”
Elite Subject Assembles
The 2026 area encompasses a robust mixture of Ugandan and regional stars, together with:
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Kabasweka Peace (Toro Membership) — defending 2024 champion
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Mercy Nyachama (Kenya) — reigning Uganda Women Open 2025 champion
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Martha Babirye (Uganda Membership) — three-time Uganda Women Open winner
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Neema Olomi (Tanzania) — 2018 Entebbe Women Open champion
Extra contenders embody Loveness Frank, Wendy Angudeyo, Victoria Elias, Rukia Nalwoga, and Stella Gama.
Seven-time Entebbe Women champion Irene Nakalembe will function within the subsidiary occasion in assist of the primary championship.
Accessible Entry Construction
Organizers have maintained a tiered entry charge mannequin to encourage broad participation:
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Women Fundamental Occasion: UGX 150,000
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Bronze Occasion: UGX 100,000
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Subsidiary Occasion: UGX 50,000
Eligible gamers are required to register by means of Entebbe Membership in accordance with Uganda Golf Union rules.
With MTN Uganda’s backing and a strengthened aggressive area, the return of the Entebbe Women Open reinforces Uganda’s rising stature in regional newbie golf. As play will get underway, the event is poised to ship not simply elite competitors but in addition a strong assertion in regards to the accelerating rise of ladies’s golf throughout East Africa.
Former West Ham, QPR and Czech Republic goalkeeper Ludek Miklosko has died at the age of 64.
Miklosko made almost 400 appearances for the Hammers from 1990 to 1998 and was much loved by supporters, who regularly sang his name long after he left the club.
He later returned as a goalkeeping coach.
Miklosko withdrew from cancer treatment in December 2024, three years after his diagnosis.
Days later he returned to West Ham’s London Stadium for a Premier League match against Liverpool to a hero’s reception.
A West Ham statement read: “It is with deep and profound sadness that West Ham United announces the passing of legendary former goalkeeper and coach, Luděk Miklosko.
“Rest in peace Ludek, our beloved, inspirational goalkeeper and gentle giant of a man.”
More to follow.
Going into the 2026 season, few people would have backed Zverev to win two Grand Slam tournaments, with the German having already lost three major finals in a career which looked in danger of not living up to expectation.
But injuries to his biggest rivals – Alcaraz missing the French Open and Wimbledon, with Sinner ruled out of the US Open – opened the door for Zverev.
A below-par Zverev scraped through the opening rounds at Flushing Meadows in a series of early-morning finishes, but he gradually improved over a fortnight where he did not play a top-20 opponent until Shelton.
Zverev had not lost to Shelton in their five previous meetings and immediately capitalised on a nervy start by his opponent.
Shelton double-faulted on break point in the first game of the match, handing over the type of initiative that opponents often struggle to wrestle back from Zverev.
Through the strength of his first serve, and his ability to unpick Shelton’s weaker backhand in the baseline exchanges, Zverev rolled through the opening set and clinched it when Shelton hit another double fault on set point.
Zverev continued to patiently draw mistakes from Shelton in the second set, but without being gifted a break when his only opportunity arrived in the fourth game.
He instead showed why he has a strong tie-break record with another nerveless display and, unlike in the 2020 US Open final when he lost from a two-set lead, kept his composure in the pressure moments to secure a commanding victory.
Addressing his team which is led by his father Alexander senior and brother Mischa, Zverev said: “We went 30 years without winning a Grand Slam title and now won two in the span of three months.
“I think God has seen how hard we have worked, how hard we have suffered and how much pain we went through.
“I think 2026 is the outcome of all the years that happened before.”
With Haaland’s goal settling the match, United were unsurprisingly disappointed by the decision.
“I think it was offside,” said Martinez. “And what I can’t understand is the rules. I want to be calm now, I want to control myself.
“It’s so hard because you lose a derby, you lose three points at home, and every season they’re [referees] coming to our club, they explain for one hour the rules, and they look so confident with that, and then after [there are] five or six people doing these kind of mistakes in the Premier League – it’s unacceptable.
“It’s the best league in the world, you have the best teams in the world, the best players in the world, and now we have to go home with this injustice.”
United boss Carrick also expressed his confusion.
“We put things in place in the game now, we have people in offices with all the screens for this decision,” he said.
“It’s more worrying about if that’s the interpretation of football now. If that’s the interpretation of not interfering in the game now, that’s really worrying for me. It’s a staggering explanation.
“The decision isn’t going to change the season, but it’s had a major impact on the game.”
Wayne Rooney, part of the BBC’s MOTD2 team, said: “Surely it’s offside. Martinez is impacted by Fernandez’s movement, and he is offside.”
Gary Neville said on Sky Sports: “I think we’ll see some sort of apology from the referee’s association, there’s no doubt Fernandez is playing that ball and is trying to put off Martinez. I think it’s one they’ll recognising they got wrong.”
Micah Richards added: “I think it’s been a bad day for referees. They got the Foden decision wrong and the Fernandez decision wrong. I think they got it so wrong but I don’t think it takes anything away from City’s performance.”
Meanwhile, City boss Maresca said: “I think it was onside clearly so it’s good.”
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