NEW CHAMPS EMERGE: Kilifi’s St. Georges, Shimba Hills lift titles as Mombasa Region school games end

Athletes compete in the boys 5,000m category during the Mombasa Region Term Two ‘A’ games at Mpeketoni Boys Secondary School in Lamu County. Shujaa Mekatilili’s Philemon Ruto (second right) won.  [PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/STANDARD]

Some wept as others went into wild celebrations. This was the case in Mpeketoni Secondary School, Lamu County, as new champions emerged as Mombasa Region Secondary Schools Second Term ‘A’ games ended yesterday.

New champions emerged in boys’ handball and rugby sevens to end the dominance of a few schools in the disciplines.

In boys’ handball, St Georges of Kilifi County were crowned the new champions after eliminating Kaya Tiwi Secondary School of Kwale County 26-20 in a gruelling final, which could have gone either way.

Kaya Tiwi, who were making their maiden appearance in the games since taking to handball last year, upset the immediate former champions Shimo La Tewa of  Mombasa County 26-15 in the semi-final, while St Georges stopped Mpeketoni Secondary School 32-15 on their way to the final.

In play-offs, Shimo La Tewa settled for the third position after beating Mpeketoni 15-7.

In boys’ rugby, St Georges surrendered the title to Shimba Hills of Kwale after losing 19-5 in the final. En route to the final, Shimba Hills thrashed Mlamba of Taita Taveta 26-7, while St Georges beat Galana of Kilifi 14-12.

In the main cup play-offs Mlamba beat Galana 14-10 to finish third.

In the shield category, former champions Hindi from Lamu beat Mpeketoni 7-0 in the final while Mkongani of Kilifi beat Lamu’s Hongwe 12-0 to lift the plate trophy.

In girls’ handball, defending champions and last year’s national finalists Shimba Hills coached by Farid Mohammed retained the title for the fifth year in a row after beating St John’s Kaloleni of Kilifi 23-9 in the final.

The winners edged out Kaya Tiwi 22-4 while St John’s defeated Witu Mjini of Lamu 26-5 in the semi-finals. Kaya Tiwini finished third after beating Witu Mjini 6-2.

In netball, Shimba Hills recaptured the title  after beating St Johns Kaloleni 68-12 in the final.

En route to the final, Shimba Hills beat Franz Joseph of Kwale 69-7, while St Johns Kaloleni beat Kajembe of Mombasa 62-15. In play-offs, Franz Joseph edged Kajembe 18-16.

Two more records were set in athletics where Bahati Joseph of Mwereni of Kwale threw a distance of 15.0 meters in girls’ Hammer to erase the previous record of 14.14m set by Julia Dola of Mwangea School of Taita Taveta.

In girls’ Triple Jump, Dorothy Chapwani of Kilifi’s record of 10.05m was smashed by Anjela Ngambo of Shunjaa Mekatilili after jumping a distance of 10.61m.

In overall,  Kwale emerged victorious with 51 points which included three gold medals, while Kilifi had 51 points. Taita Taveta were third with 29 points.

Taita Taveta won the girls’ athletics title with Kilifi and Kwale following in that order. In the boys’ category, Kilifi were the best with Kwale and Taita Taveta settling for the second and third positions respectively.

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