WHO WILL WIN IT? Tight race for Most Promising category in Soya

Joseph Okumu (right) of Kakamega High School of Kenya vies for the ball with Mvara Secondary School of Uganda's captain Muhammed Swaridahab during thei football match of East Africa Secondary School Games at Dar es Salaam University College of Education grounds on 25-08-2014.PHOTO/DENNIS OKEYO

Competition for the Most Promising category is neck to neck as time draws nearer for the 2016 Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year (SOYA) Awards slated for January 19 in Nairobi.

It’s evident the category has attracted star participants and is likely to be a close call in both boys and girls contests.

Steeplechase ace Amos Kirui, 18, leads the pack in the boy’s category that has a field of five strong nominees.

Kirui is best remembered to have won the 3,000m steeplechase race at the 2016 World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland clocking 8:20.43 and shocking pre-race favourite Getnet Wale of Ethiopia.
He further ran a World Junior leading time of 13:25.19 over 5,000m in Kanaguri in April and won the 10,000m Konusu Race, both in Japan ,where he clocked 28:08.00.

Kirui will fight for the top honours in the boy’s category against 800m ace Bett Kipyegon, Motosport’s Jet TuKunen, footballer Joseph Okumu and Ryan Randiek of Tennis.

Kipyegon won the World Junior 800m title in Bydgoszcz, beating Willy Tarbei who had defeated him two years ago and in the process finished the season ranked 12th in the 800m race before he graduated to the senior ranks, while 10-year old TukKunen has been outstanding in the Motocross scene, securing the MX 65 class title before the last round of the competition.

The lanky footballer Okumu is also a potential winner of the category having risen rapidly in his football career, moving from Kakamega High School to Kenyan Premier League side Chemelil Sugar and joining professional ranks at South African Premier League with top side Free State Stars
where he has started in eight of their matches so far.

Randiek is the fifth nominee in this category, having been ranked second in the Africa Boys 14 years and under. He helped Kenya win the Regional Confederation of African Tennis (CAT) title in January 2016 and is the only Kenyan boy taking part in the 14 years and below CAT
African Masters’s tournament.

The girl’s category is led by Harambee Starlets’ hero Mwanahalima Adam who played an integral part in the team’s qualification for their maiden Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon despite missing the continental showpiece as she was seating for her Form Four exams during that period.

She was voted the Airtel Rising Stars’ Most Valuable Player in East Africa after she steered her school St Johns of Mombasa to the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) title and helped them to reach the finals of the East Africa championships.

Apart from Safaricom, the Soya awards area also sponsored by Lotto, Kenya Pipeline Company, Kenya Tourism Board, Communication Authority of Kenya, NHIF, NSSF, Supersport and Multichoice.