Ismail Ssebaggala started para-archery last year dreaming to represent Uganda at the international level-especially the Paralympic Games-but that dream seems shattered.At the 2025 World Para Archery Championships in Gwangju, South Korea last week, Ssebaggala scored 250 points instead of the 500 required to qualify to the next round, yet his biggest disappointment was being ruled ineligible for para-archery.Ssebaggala walks with a limp because his legs are imbalanced, but the International Paralympic Committee qualifiers could not find a class for him among handicapped athletes.’The classifiers said they found all his limbs strong enough, which renders him ineligible among the paras,’ said Ssebaggala’s Coach Aisha Namukwaya, who travelled with him in Gwangju.’That means if he is to continue with archery, it can only be among the non-disabled.’Patrick Synole, director administration at the Uganda Paralympic Committee, understands these intricacies better.’We subject para-athletes to national classification which gives them temporary classes as per the national classifiers, pending international classification at international events,’ Synole told Daily Monitor.’After an athlete attains that international class, is when he or she is allowed to compete in an international event and entered into the IPC database.’NE, the tag Ssebaggala got in Gwangju, means Not Eligible. But all is not lost. In mid-October the same athlete will be in Cairo for the World Para-powerlifting Championship, where he will most likely be admitted into the database.And Synole said he should not give up on archery. ‘We always encourage our athletes to have a primary discipline and a secondary one. And archery being mostly a mind game, it cannot stop you from doing powerlifting,’ he said.Coach Namukwaya’s only valid concern may be the athletes’ ability to apportion both sports befitting commitment.BRIEFLYWho: Ismail SsebaggalaWhat: rejected at World Para-ArcheryClass: Not EligibleUp next: World Para-Powerlifting