Entebbe. Was it bad luck, ‘juju’ or competition pressure? Kenyan champion, Ivan Guya, had ‘juju’ to blame for his misfortune during the fifth round of the Mountain Dew Uganda National MX Championship at Garuga Racetrack on Sunday.

Guya, 17, one of four Kenyan guest riders in the event, was enjoying a healthy lead against Ugandan Maxime Van Pee in the first heat of the MX1 race but crashed. Van Pee easily won after the Kenyan’s fall. About an hour later, Guya’s bike engine went off during the second heat for Van Pee to win again. “I didn’t know that Ugandans use ‘juju’, Eng George Guya, the Kenyan rider’s dad, jokingly told this reporter after the two incidents.
Guya, however, recovered to win the third heat. “I am happy to win the third heat after disappointment in the first two. Uganda riders have improved a lot,” he said.
Van Pee, who also crashed in the third heat, blamed it on competition pressure. “For the whole month the talk was about this race. But I am satisfied with my performance,’ noted Van Pee, Uganda’s team captain. Both riders will participate in FIM Africa Motocross of African Nations due next month in Zimbabwe. In the MX2 category, another Kenyan, Ngugi Waweru, won all his three heats against Uganda’s best riders. The 15-year-old beat Alestair Blick and Ali Omar by some distance, proving to them that they still have a lot to learn.
In the MX85CC, Fortune Ssentamu had a puncture in the second heat and finished fourth but rallied to win the other two heats.