Parklands Sports Club are this year’s
overall winners of the 13th edition of Hospitality and Tourism Sports
Organisation (Hotoso) games finals held at the Kenya Utalii College Sports Club
grounds, Nairobi at the weekend.
Parklands accumulated 154 points in the
games that involved football (men), basketball, netball, scrabble, lawn tennis,
squash, table tennis, pool, draughts, darts, swimming and athletics to emerge overall winners while
runners up were Hilton Hotel with 120 points.
Parklands took gold in tug-of-war (women),
pool table, squash, and lawn tennis and had impressive finish in badminton and
swimming.
Hilton, coached by Kenya Netball Federation
and continental umpire Peggy Ajusa, were unbeaten in netball in which they won
gold.
Hilton were also unbeaten in darts and
badminton and finished second in swimming, tug-of-war and squash.
Nairobi Airport Services (NAS) finished
third with 118 points after winning in table-tennis and badminton.
Intercontinental Hotels, who finished
fourth with 85 points, won gold in swimming and table tennis.
Fifth were hosts Kenya Utalii College with
80 points after winning silver in lawn tennis (men0 and pool table (women).
Methodist Guest House proved a tough nut to
crack in scrabble and men’s tug-of-war which saw them accumulate same points as
Utalii College to finish in sixth place.
Nairobi Safari Club (NSC), that reigned
supreme in athletics and football, were placed seventh with 37 points.
It was the second time NSC, coached by
Julias Okwach, were winning the coveted football title after edging out
perennial rivals Nairobi Java House 7-6 on post-match penalties following a
barren draw in regular time.
Tough
game
Nairobi Java House lost the highly
contested match after Kevin Omondi’s penalty shot hit the goal post. It took
agility and accuracy of Fredrick Were to beat former Gor Mahia custodian
Maurice Serulo who was manning Java House goal mouth.
“The game was tough, it could have gone
either way, but all the same we have been training on penalty shot, that is why
we won the match,” said Okwach, who is also a former Hotoso player, after the
game.
Jeremiah Ukaya, Nairobi Java House team
manager blamed the referee for their loss but said they will come back stronger
next year.
Stay informed. Subscribe to our newsletter
“Last year, we finished third, this year
second so next year we are clinching the football trophy,” said Ukaya.
Hotoso games were established 13 years ago
to promote growth of a variety of sports in the local hospitality and tourism
industry.
The current Hotoso members are Hilton
Hotel, Kenya Utalii College, Kenya Airways, Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi
Serena Hotel, Nairobi Safari Club, Methodist Guest House, NAS Airport, Tribe
Hotel, Nairobi Java House, Windsor Hotel and Parklands Sports Club.