Nyanza Region: Sinyolo Girls and Kisumu Day retain hockey titles

KSSSA Regional Games Sinyolo Girls Hockey players celebrate after winning the seventh title against Nyamira Girl's during the Regional games in the Hockey final's at St. Mary's Yala on 24-3-2018 [Phillip Orwa, Standard]

National and East Africa hockey champions Sinyolo Girls and Kisumu Day successfully defended their titles with an identical 1-0 scoreline at St. Mary’s School, Yala yesterday.

Sinyolo, once again ended Nyamira Girls' hopes of featuring at the national games by coming top in the final match watched by hundreds of fans.

Yesterday’s game between the two arch rivals was a repeat of last year’s final and the other five years finals (since 2012) in which Sinyolo has won with an identical 1-0 scoreline, with the exception of 2017 in which they prevailed 2-0.

Sinyolo dominated the match from the start but had to wait until the start of the third quarter to take a lead through Maureen Owiti’s solitary goal, that also enabled them qualify for the nationals games in Embu in a fortnight.

The goal rejuvenated the Alloise Owino and Hellen Juma coached side steered side as they restrained their opponents in their half but failed to add to their goals tally.

Following the victory, Sinyolo have now won the title for a record seven consecutive years and will be seeking to win the national title for the third time in a row.

In the boys’ final, Emmanuel Juma’s only goal was enough to separate Kisumu Day and Kisumu Boys, in what was a repeat of last year’s final.

After battling out to a scoreless draw in the first three quarters, Juma decided the match in the dying minutes of the last quarter to book them a slot at the nationals.

In basketball, Ambira Boys and Barchando Girls are the new champions in boys and girls category respectively.

For Ambira, the win is a return to national games after they trounced Agoro Sare 53-47 in a hard-fought finals. They were last at the nationals in 2014.

Defending champions Kisumu Boys were eliminated at group stages.

Girls defending champions Nyamira Girls did not also make it to the regional games as they were eliminated at the county level.

To emerge, the new basketball champions in girl’s category, Barchando Girls beat Ngiya Girls 61-33.

In handball, Kanyawanga and Sega comfortably retained the boys and girls titles after winning against Maseno School 31-19 in boys’ final and Msare 33-17 in girls encounter.

The rugby match between St. Mary’s Yala and Maseno School was decided via a toss of a coin. [Phillip Orwa]