The Ugandan Badminton fraternity can finally afford a smile after Fadilah Shamika Mohammed Rafi secured the country’s second gold and abronze medal in women’s doubles has she pathered up with Tracy Naluwooza at the All Africa Badminton senior championship individual title in Gabrone, Baostwana.
On Sunday 15th February 2026 , will go down as one of Shamika Mohamed Rafi’s career highlights,as she bounced back to beat his long time rival South Africa’s Johanita Scholz 2-1 in the three sets Fadilah won 21-17, 16-21, 21-19 to claim the women’s singles gold.
It was also the second gold medal for Uganda at the showpiece and Shamika became the first woman from Uganda to win two gold medals at the All Africa Badminton senior championship .
The Ugandan badminton duo, Fadillah Shamika Mohamed Rafi and Tracy Naluwooza, secured abronze medals in the women’s doubles category at the 2026 All Africa individual Badminton Championship They lost .2-0 to South African’s Amy Ackerman and Johanita Scholtz in the semifinals (21-16, 21-10).
The 22-year-old says it’s a great experience to claim gold at such a competition.
“I’m grateful for this because I really didn’t have much time to prepare,” an elated Shamika said.
“Honestly, I want to thank my dad for pushing me to reach this level. I was exhausted but he kept telling me ‘one more to go’,” she noted after the victory.
“What kept me going was to decide to think as I played because I was tired but kept going.”
Fadilah and Tracy Naluwooza is no stranger in winning, in 2023 they represented Uganda at the All Africa Senior badminton championship in South Africa and Fadilah won gold medals in the women’s singles and team up in women’s doubles with Tracy Naluwooza to won abronze medal history has repeated it’s self.
Uganda was represented by 10 badminton players at the just concluded badminton championships led by captain Tracy Naluwooza under Steward of coach Frank Muwuluzi .
However, all of them fell short in individual and miss out team events due to flight issues. Most were eliminated in the round of 32 and quarter finals.
The 2026 All Africa Men’s and Women’s Team Badminton Championships was a continental stage tournament to crown the best men’s and women’s badminton team in Africa. The tournament also served as the African qualifiers for the 2026 Thomas & Uber Cup to be held in . This tournament was held in Gaborone, Botswana between 9 and 12 February 2026.
The Uganda Badminton Association will now shift its focus to the Uganda International Challenge Championships.
Over 40 countries are expected to take part in the tournament set for February 18th to 22nd at the MTN Arena Lugogo in Kampala.
Absolutely fantastic news! What an incredible achievement for Shamika and Tracy – congratulations to the entire Ugandan badminton team.