Kenya finishes ninth at Africa Taekwondo Championship

National Taekwondo team's Olympian Faith Ogallo (left) and Captain Edwin Lemiso displaying their skills before receiving Taekwondo equipments from Korean Government at Maktaba offices, Nairobi. The equipments will help in her preparations towards and after Olympic. June 10, 2021. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Olympians Milka Akinyi and Faith Ogallo starred as the national taekwondo team finished ninth overall as the 2022 African Taekwondo Championships hosted in Rwanda came to an end on Monday.

Akinyi won Kenya’s only gold medal at the Kigali Arena which hosted the games.

She triumphed in Poomsae (pattern competiton) which is a set sequence of movements that consists of the various fundamental stances, blocks, punches and kicks logically arranged in a meaningful order in response to attacks from multiple imaginary assailants.

Akinyi took the gold on July 13, the first day of the five-day competition in the under 40 years’ category.

Kenya came ninth out of 40 countries after winning one gold and three bronze medals.

In the Kyorugi (fighting) category, Olympian Faith Ogallo (heavyweight) along with Everlyn Aluoch Oloo (middleweight) and Sharon Nafula (flyweight) won a bronze medal each in the annual championship.

Ogallo registered 2:0, 3:2 and 3:3 in the three rounds.

The Kibabii University student went toe-to-toe against Fatima Aboufaras in the semi-final where but the Moroccan was awarded the match due to the new rules because she was more technical than Ogallo.

In the last edition held in 2021 in Dakar, Senegal, Kenya finished seventh with three bronze medals won by Ogallo, Aluoch and Mary Muriu.