By George Bukenya
Meet the Fortebet Real Stars Sports Award Life time achievement winner Catherine Wejuli Adipo, former football referee and volleyball National team captain.
She was recognized for her life time achievement in sports but particularly in the game of football where she rose from being a referee to administrative posts.
The award was presented to her by Real Stars Sports Award Chief Executive Officer Isaac Mukasa at Nanjing Hotel in Kololo today.
Speaking to sports reporters, Adipo who is currently lecturing at Kyambogo University in the Department of Sports Science said that in her youthful age she liked to challenge men having hailed in a family where she was the only girl child.
“ I was motivated by the fact that I liked challenging men and wanting to do what they do even better than them, then I got courage to join the refereeing career,’’ Adip said.
She further said that, although the game of football is so tempting in form of being corrupted with money, she was able to resist that temptation because she always wanted to protect her integrity
“ The current young referees should always endeavor to work with a lot of integrity, keeping fitness and keep longing for performance this will help them achieve even better than us,’’ She argued.
About Catherine Adipo
Many current football lovers in Uganda especially the youth may not know her but she made her household name when she became the first woman referee in the great lakes region to acquire a Confederation of Africa Football and FIFA referee’s badges respectively.
She began her refereeing career in 1989 and got the FIFA badge in 1995 becoming Uganda’s first woman FIFA referee.
Adipo officiated in several international tournaments which include; 2000 Africa Women’s Championship in South Africa, 2002 Africa Women’s Championship, Nigeria, 2003 CAF Olympic qualifier between Angola and Zimbabwe and 2004 Africa Women’s Championship, South Africa.
She is a FIFA/CAF Referees Instructor in addition to mentoring FIFA female referees in the country like Shamim Nabadda, Habiba Naigaga and Diana Murungi.
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