Flying start for Kakamega, St. Anthony and Wiyeta at national school games

Thirteen-time national champions Kakamega High School and St. Antony Kitale got their football under-19 title hunt off to a flying start after recording impressive wins as the Kenya Secondary School Sports Association (KSSSA) Term 2B Nationals School Games got underway at The Hills School grounds in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County on Tuesday.

Kakamega, popularly known as Green Commandos thrashed Eastern Region champions Kathungi of Kitui County 4-1 in thrilling Pool A opener.

The Kitui FKF League Division Two side opened the scoring charts in the 20th minute through Julius Kyalo before the Western football powerhouse started the onslaught five minutes later through Dan Oloo, with Evans Odhiambo making it 2-1, minutes before half time.

The National Super League side proved to be too strong against the Eastern Region representatives with Odhiambo scoring his second goal in the hour mark before Kelvin Tom made it 4-1 in the dying minutes of the second half.

In a post-match interview with Citizen Digital, Commandos head coach Brendan Mwinamo was full of praise for his charges but warned them not to sleep on their laurels.

“I am taking one game at a time .We are now focusing on our next match against St .Antony. All the teams in our pool are very good; we don’t fear anyone but we respect them,” said Mwinamo who steered the Western based team to the Kenya’s second tier league last year.

In the other Pool A fixture, last year’s runners up, St. Antony, who lost against Upper Hill in the finals, were in a roaring start hitting Ringa of Nyanza 4-0.

St. Antony will face Kathungi in their second tie and their tactician George Owoko is upbeat they will clinch this year’s title.

“It is not a matter of here or there; we will win this title. I have a good squad and I am sure we will sail through to the quarters as the group leaders,” an optimistic Owoko told Citizen Digital.

In the girl’s category, defending champions Wiyeta of Coast announced their intentions of retaining the gong in style hitting Matuu Memorial of Eastern 11-0.

Under the tutelage of Manyara Edga, the coastal based team clinched their first ever East Africa regional football title last year in Uganda with the coach hopeful they can replicate the feat.

Meanwhile, three-time East Africa volleyball champions Kwanthanze of Machakos County started  their quest to retain their girl’s title on a high downing familiar opponent Cheptil by 3-0 straight sets in an entertaining tie.

Kwanthanze which is renowned for producing potent talents saw off the Rift Valley side in sets of 25-23, 25-16 and 25-13.

It was a repeat of last year’s finals in Nyeri where Kwanthanze downed Cheptil by the same margin and Justin Kigwari, co ach of Kwathanze remained humble in victory noting that it is too early to predict the direction their title defence could take.

“Our opponents were tough, and it will not be a surprise if we meet them in the finals. My target is to defend my national title but we will take one game at a time,” he averred.

Elsewhere, rugby action is expected to start on Thursday morning with other preliminary matches on various discipline set to continue on Wednesday.

The competition will end on Saturday with winners and runners -up lined up to represent Kenya in East Africa games slated for August 14-26 in Kigali, Rwanda.

Collated Results

Football

St Anthony 4-0 Ringa

Kakamega High School 4-1 Kathungi

Wiyeta 11-0 Matuu Memorial

Volleyball

Kwanthanze  3-0 Cheptil