St John's retain hockey title, Upper Hill beat Laiser

National champions St John’s Kaloleni from Kilifi County successfully retained the girl’s hockey title as the Coast region secondary schools first term games ended yesterday at Malindi High School.

Coached by Austin Otieno, St John’s Kaloleni walloped Chumani 3-0 in an all Kilifi County final affair.

The win was a morale booster for St John’s Kaloleni who are eyeing the national title for the second year after they made history as the first ever team from Coast region to win the girls hockey title since the inception of the school games.

In the final, Agnes Raisi scored a brace before Sheila Nazi added the third goal after a scoreless draw in the first half. “It was a tough match especially in the first half after our opponents resisted our raids, but my girls had to unleash our secret weapon after the breather to outplay them and win the match,” said Otieno.

In Nairobi, National boys basketball champions Upper Hill school beat former champions Laiser Hill 59-51 in a tightly contested match to retain the Metropolitan title. Home support saw Upper Hill take the first quarter 18-13 despite Laiser taking an early lead their hosts responded to immediately.

Laiser Hill suffered a setback when their key player guard Ryan Otsimi suffered an injury that reduced him to a spectator for the better part of the game.

However, determined to win they laboured to take the second quarter 24-11 giving them a 39-29 lead by the breather.

The third quarter proved more difficult for the Kajiado-based students as they went down 14-6 to their hosts.

Upper Hill sealed the victory with a 16-8 lead in the fourth quarter.

Atar Mabeny starred for Upper Hill scoring 23 points while David Omondi scored ten points.

Upper Hill head coach Ronald Omangi told Feverpitch that his team was determined to retain the national title.