When coach Ezra Kalali sat down for an interview ahead of the July 2-5 Uganda Aquatics National Swimming Championships, he refused to talk about winning.
“Winning will be a bonus. Our focus is on seeing the swimmers compete favourably and improve,” he said.
Four days later at Kampala International School of Uganda in Naguru, his new club Imara Aquatics Sports Club were crowned overall national champions after amassing 3,124 points to end Gators’ four-year dominance. Gators finished second with 3,091.5 points, just 32.5 points behind. Altona was third with 2,966.
For a club making its maiden appearance at the Nationals, it was a bold statement. But as captain Ampaire Namanya put it, it was a new team but with familiar faces.
“After the split it was tough. We did not know what was going to happen or where we were headed but we were the same people,” Namanya said after lifting the trophy.
Imara consists of the larger group that broke away from Silverfin Academy and rebranded. Same swimmers, same coaches, new name, new philosophy.
“I think we are building well. It was more like a branding of new name, then starting afresh,” Kalali explained.
A partnership that pays
Part of Imara’s rise can be attributed to their partnership with Hill Preparatory School. The club has a memorandum of understanding with the school where it provides swimming support to the pupils.
“There is a big number from the school and they are part of our core team. More importantly, integrating them was one of the major reasons we decided to start Imara,” Imara chairman Michael Bwisho, said.
“I mean, the like minded people, who wanted to make a difference in the lives of these children thought we could have an organisation where decision making is easy and swift.
“We believe this can be a legacy project that we must continue to push. It can have a lasting impact in the lives of these swimmers and those who will come after if they can get the right support,” Bwisho added.
Hill Prep runs a programme for children with special needs and Imara has deliberately opened doors for everyone at the school.
This direction was partly inspired by the rise of special needs swimmer Larry Graig Feni to the historic double-gold performance at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin, Germany in 2019.
Diagnosed early in childhood with speech and hearing impairments alongside autism, Feni faced a local athletic landscape with sparse specialized resources. His life trajectory shifted dramatically when he entered the water at Naguru Hill Preparatory School, showing immediate competitive instinct by age eight. Inclusive swimming provided an environment where physical and cognitive communication barriers faded, replaced by stroke efficiency and raw speed.
Since discovering Feni, Kalali has never looked back at the need for inclusion. He is now working with more special needs swimmers. He took Christian Kansiime Arinitwe, Patrick Kalemba, and Jotham Timbiti to the Nationals as part of Imara’s team.
“Sometimes Christian (the most famous among the trio) doesn’t want to swim, he will come and do land work. But he listens. When you tell him do this, he will try his best. So we put him in a lower group where he can manage. Sometimes we give him one-on-one coaching when he’s having his own lane,” Kalali says.
Talent development
The model is a talent pathway producing swimmers with huge potential like Raan Batuk, Alba Ihunde, Arthur Nsubuga, Sebastian Luke Lule among others.
Raymond Mugaga, the head of swimming at Hill Preparatory says “we have the dream to produce the best swimmers in Uganda but we cannot afford to have the best coaches to attain that.
“A child pays maybe an average of Shs250,000 to Shs350,000 per month to a swim club. Imara gives us this service at no cost. It is a great opportunity for children who couldn’t afford to achieve the best coaching.
“And theh support both our regular and special needs swimmers. We have about 10 special needs swimmers, but some are dyslexic so you cannot tell who they are physically. We have the pool for training but they (Imara) still pay for it. Their (Imara) coaches provide that extra touch for those children who can be around after classes.
“Many of these children, around 25, participated in Nationals and seven have qualified to represent Uganda at the Africa Aquatics Zone III (due October 21-25 in Kampala). Imara also goes the extra step of providing meals and support during galas.
“And we are seeing resultes because of how they have polished our swimmers. Around 10 students from previous years are on scholarship in secondary,” Mugaga shares.
For Kalali, who is tasked with bringing out the best of swimmers at Imara, 2018 was when it started. First as head coach at Marines, then assistant at Silverfin before taking over as head coach. His own swimming started late – in his Senior Six vacation. He was a karateka who went to the pool for recovery and power work, then joined Makerere University swimming in his first year, second semester. He balanced karate and swimming before swimming took over. He captained Makerere for three years, made the national team for Africa Aquatics Zone III Championships held in Uganda in 2018 and also raced at the East African University Games and African University Games.
“I didn’t get a chance to specialize. I was doing all events. Starting out, I was more like a breaststroker, then distance freestyle, then I tried 200m fly. So we trained for everything,” he recalls.
Given how his teams perform in breaststroke events, Kalali is called a breaststroke coach but he laughs it off: “This stroke chooses them. I found a few of them, I just polished them.”
In the 11-12 boys’ 50m breaststroke, Kristian Mugumya Bwisho touched first in 34.16 for gold, and right behind him Raan Batuk took silver in 35.69. Ibrahim Lule, Sebastian Luke Ssimbwa and Brian Lule were all inside the points. It was a statement: we are not just winning, we are dominating.
That pattern repeated all week. In the same 50m, 15-16 boys, Isaiah Kuc won gold in 31.84. His brother Elijah Polo was 10th, Mahad Tariq Kayiira, Elisha Kato and Elijah Walusimbi behind him, all scoring. In 17 and Over, Feni tied for silver in 29.74, with Trevor John Kimuli fifth and Namanya 10th. Even in 10 and Under, Mathew Tendo Ssaka was 11th, Josephine Wanyana 8th for the girls.
Kalemba won special needs’ gold in 41.08, with Arinitwe third.
In the grueling 200m. The 11-12 boys again showed why they were the engine of this team. Bwisho won gold in 2:44.60, Batuk bronze in 2:57.00, Lule fourth, Ssimbwa seventh. Four boys in the top seven. For the girls, Ihunde took silver in 3:06.42. In 13-14, Nsubuga grabbed silver in 2:49.16. In 15-16, Kuc added another gold in 2:36.30. In 17 and Over, Feni closed the day with bronze in 2:32.06.
In the 100m breaststroke Ihunde, who had bronze in the 50m, won the 11-12 girls in 1:25.87. Bwisho again beat the boys in 1:15.90, with Lule taking bronze and Batuk fourth. Kuc won the 15-16 boys in 1:10.96. Karla Mugisha, who had been fourth in the 50m, stepped onto the podium with bronze in the 17 and Over girls in 1:25.93. Feni was touched out for gold by a fingertip in the senior boys, taking silver in 1:05.85.
The only blemish came in 13-14 boys where Nsubuga and Samuel Kakuru were disqualified, and in 10 and Under girls where Rahmah Namata Namutebi was disqualifed after Wanyana had finished 5th. At that point Imara had seven DQs on Day Two, and it looked like the breaststroke bank might start leaking.
But that’s the point. Even when Imara made mistakes, they had enough swimmers in the race to still score.
How the title was won
Kuc was the lead perfomer in 15-16 boys and overall for the team; 11 individual golds, two silvers, plus two relay golds and a bronze, and even two individual bronzes in the open 15 and Over 800m and 400m freestyle.
He was closely followed by Bwisho with 10 golds, a silver and two bronzes, plus four relay golds in 11-12 boys, where Sebastian Luke Ssimbwa, Ibrahim Lule and Raan Batuk added depth. Elijah Polo backed Kuc in 15-16.
Among the girls, Alba Ihunde and Gabriella Eleanor Nakimuli each had a gold in 11-12, with Ihunde adding five silvers and three bronzes. Imara topped both 11-12 and 15-16 age groups.
They were not perfect everywhere. They struggled in 15-16 girls where Penina Namirimu, Mary Genevieve Murungi, Jemimah Nakintu and Immaculate Atim grinded for points in middle distance, finishing fifth. In 13-14 girls, Victoria Ssaka, Fairuz Mamun, Manuella Ashana and Shona Mugisha finished 12th. But captain Karla Mugisha and Kayla Elisha Arinda ensured fourth in 17 and Over girls. In 10 and Unders, Mathew Tendo Ssaka inspired the boys to fifth, while Josephine Wanyana and Abishai Walusimbi carried the girls with Rahmah Namata Namutebi, Emily Bulya and Gianna Musiimenta.
Arthur Nsubuga inspired 13-14 boys to third. Imara knew where to fight. They scored zero in the expanded 11-14 and 15 and Over girls’ open categories and minimal in the boys’ open – but there were few points there anyway.
The mental battle was real. On Day Two, under pressure to dethrone an establishment, Imara suffered seven disqualifications (DQs) and some scratches. In the final two days, just two DQs.
“It has been teamwork and I want to thank my fellow coaches,” Kalali said after the win. He also shared that Vincent Kibira, Jacob Mugisha, and Nancy Atukwatse each run their own workouts and he just plays the supervisory and oversight role.
“We sit down at the beginning of a season, we go through what the season will look like, but day-to-day it’s up to them. I give them freedom to develop their own coaching philosophy in regard to the club’s philosophy. And we have open communication,” Kalali shared.
That philosophy was forged after Covid through clinics with ASCA (American Swimming Coaches Association) and World Aquatics, books and conferences.
“Before Covid I was different. Now it’s about being passionate and about getting the kids better from where they were yesterday,” he says.
Club chairman Bwisho told the team to own the tag: “Everyone everywhere will look at you as champions now. You worked hard for it. Get used to it, it is what you are.”
For Imara, a club that started to advance a community project built on inclusion, social responsibility, sacrifice, and focused on improvement over winning, winning came anyway. And you get the feeling it is only the beginning.