Kenyans trail Ugandans in athletics at East Africa games

Samuel Imeta and Meshack Babu after winning East Africa schools athletics championships. [Elizabeth Mburugu]

Samuel Imeta, Michael Kibet and Catherine Reline struck gold for Kenya as the athletics championships at the 2018 Brookside East Africa Secondary School games kicked off at Ubworoherane Stadium yesterday.

But Kenyans, who are known to run the shows in global athletics, were outclassed by Ugandans who won nine gold, six silver and four bronze medals to the charts with 19 medals.

Kenya placed second on the table with 18 medals -three gold, six silver and nine bronze as hosts Rwanda bagged two medals -gold and silver.

Imeta sealed victory for Kenya as he won100m in 10.7 seconds ahead of Meshack Babu who crossed the line 0.2 seconds behind to take silver while Uganda’s Emmanuel Aboda settled for bronze in 11.1 seconds.  

Imeta, a Form Four student at Bungoma High School, was elated with the victory. "I had prepared to sign off from schools competition on a high note and I’m glad I made it. We admire our senior athletes and always want to follow in their footsteps and we wanted a 1-2 finish just like they do in major international events," Imeta said.

Reline from Kapsait School led from gun to tape to win the girls’ 5000m race in 17:46 ahead of Kenya's Margaret Akidor (17:55.6) as Uganda’s Scarlet Chemus (18:12.5) sealed the top three spots. Reline, who is also the Kenyan champion, said she has big dreams. “I ran well but I believe that I can still get better especially in my finishing kick. I’m in Form Three and have one more year to compete and this victory inspires a lot," she said.