St Joseph's Boys and Nasokol Girls crowned Rift Valley football champions

Despite their controversial sail to the regional stage, St Joseph’s Boys popularly known as JOBO successfully defended their Rift Valley Secondary School Sports Association football title in Eldoret on Friday.

JOBO defeated St Francis Kimuron (Elgeyo Lions) from Elgeyo Marakwet 1-0 in a high-stakes football final played at Hill School Eldoret.

Both JOBO and Lions maintained their rhythms, with the Elgeyo Marakwet side disrupting their Kitale rivals with long and high balls.

Red-hot Instine Simiyu scored the precious goal three minutes to the final whistle, denying Kimuron a chance to proceed to the national games set for Kakamega next month.

JOBO had humiliated Meteitei 4-0, while Kimuron edged Christ King to record a 1-0 victory at the semi-finals staged on Thursday evening.

The Cosmas Nabungolo-managed side did not anticipate a strong opposition from Boniface Kunusia’s boys from the Home of Athletics Champions. Kimuron is credited for churning out our top athletic stars, among them Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Korir and world record holder in the distance David Rudisha, among others, but is also a football powerhouse.

JOBO football coach Amos Wanda said Kimuron managed to destroy its play at the Rift Valley finals.

“We are happy to have defended our title. It was a more difficult match compared to last year’s final. We are now going back to work on set pieces and attacking and how to tackle long and high balls. We have won so many corners but have scored none; that is an area we will be looking at,” Wanda said after the final.

Despite ineligibility questions hanging over his head, JOBO marksman Instine Simiyu said he was set for the national games.

Simiyu, who has been nicknamed Hat-trick by fans, has scored a total of 38 goals from the zonal to the regional level, nine of which were at the Rift Valley stage.

Nasokol Girls from West Pokot were crowned the girls’ football champions after beating Itigo Girls from Nandi 2-1 in another closely contested encounter.

The girls’ final ended 1-1 in regular time, but Nasokol scored in extra time.

“The girls fought so hard from the zonal to the regional level because competition was tight this time. We are now eyeing the national title,” Nasokol coach Lydia Nekesa said.