Schools: Rift Valley triumph in Term Two Games

This year’s Under-19 boys’ football champions St Anthony’s, Kitale after beating Dagoretti High School 1-0 in the final of the Kenya Secondary Schools Association Term Two national games, in Kisumu, on Saturday. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

Rift Valley Region, once again, showed their might lifting the overall title on the final day of the 2019 Secondary Schools national Term Two games, in Kisumu, at the weekend.

The region, which had also bagged the overall title in the Term One games, snatched top honours after garnering 89 points.

Led by the region’s sports giants St Anthony’s Boys Kitale, Rift Valley won 11 medals, five gold, five silver and one bronze.

New champions were crowned in Under-16 and U19 football as well as boys’ volleyball.

East Africa girls’ volleyball champions Kwanthanze and Kaya Tiwi were the only teams that successfully defended their titles after other 2018 winners failed to qualify for the nationals.

Kwanzanthe beat bitter rivals Cheptil  3-2 (24-26, 25-13, 25-22, 18-25, 15-5) to firm grip on their trophy while Kaya Tiwi overpowered Nyakach 36-30 to extend their reign for one more year. 

St Anthony’s ended a six-year trophy drought after edging Dagoretti High from Nairobi 5-4 in post match penalties.

Girls’ football powerhouse Wiyeta recaptured the U16 crown after beating newcomers Maeni from Western 2-1 in the final to add a second trophy to their region.

St Joseph’s Kitale and St Monica let Rift Valley dominated table tennis to bag gold in the boys and girls contests respectively.

The girls’ select badminton side also outclassed their Nairobi and Nyanza opponents to win gold. 

Rift Valley won silver through Itigo, who lost 2-0 to Nyakach in the girls’ U19 football final.

Newcomers Lelmokwo fell to Mogonga PAG in the boys’ volleyball final.

They also took silver in tennis (boys and girls) and bronze in boys’ badminton.

Nairobi finished second with 75 points while hosts Nyanza settled for third place with 69 points, same as fourth placed Western. 

Central were fifth with 52 points while Eastern was sixth with 48 points.

Coast, who won two gold medals through Kaya Tiwi and Serani, finished seventh with 47 points as North Eastern completed the standings with 15 points.

Despite finishing behind other regions North Eastern showed improvement after refusing to be whipped by their opponents as it has been the norm in the past. 

Boystown were a force to reckon with in the under 16 boys contest as they caused upsets to reach the semi-finals.

They later lost to Western Region’s Koyonzo 1-3 in post match penalties but they had already made a statement by finishing on top of Group B with nine points.

They finished fourth after losing to Dagoretti High who they had beaten 2-0 at the group stage in post match penalties but promised to come back stronger next year.

Netball representatives Volunteer also made a good account of themselves after displaying good netball even though they were bundled out in the preliminaries.

Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association Secretary General David Ngugi lauded the North Eastern teams for their courage and show of improvement. 

“North Eastern teams have greatly improved. They more skilled and much stronger this year and we expect them to get better.”