African Games: Indoor jewels remain elusive for Kenya

National Chess player Ricky Sang ponders his next move in a past tournament. He is among top players to fight it out in this year's Kenya National Chess Championships next month. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya performed dismally in indoor games - karate, swimming and chess - as the 12th African Games entered the homestretch in Rabat and Casablanca in Morocco yesterday.

Kenya failed to reach medal bracket in all categories in swimming championships as North African nations in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia ran the shows alongside South Africa.

In Karate, Kenya failed to impress in most of men’s and women’s categories in the championships as Algeria won the men’s Kumite title while Morocco bagged men’s and women’s Kata tiles.

Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco won most of the individual titles. Kenyans lost in the pre-quarters in women’s Kumite with a 2-0 loss to Senegal and later made it to the quarterfinals after dismissing Mauritius 3-0 before losing to Botswana 2-19.

In the group stages, Kenya Kumite team beat Chad 13-0, drew 1-1 with Ethiopia before they were knocked out by Democratic Republic of Congo 2-0 in semifinals.

In chess, Kenya posted mixed results in the round-robin matches, which Kenya beat Cape Verde 4-0, drew 2-2 with Zambia, lost 1.5-2.5 and 3-1 to Tunisia and Botswana respectively.

Kenya won two against Mauritius 2.5-1.5 and 4-0 against Central African Republic but drew 2-2 with Malawi before losing 1.5-2.5 to Ethiopia and a 1-3 loss to Nigeria.

In men’s Rapid Individual, Sang Ricky Kipngetich lost to Zimbabwe’s Rodwell Makuto and Osunfuyi Abimola of Nigeria.

Kipng’etich made a comeback to beat Mauritius’ Hoolam Naipal and Eritrea’s Zarabruk Asante with a score of 1-0, which was not enough to glide him into knockout stages.

In Women’s Rapid Individual, Nyamai Joyce Ndirangu and Mongeli Maingi failed to advance to knockout stages.

Nyamai defeated Honorina Morais of Morocco while Mongeli lost by a one point to Shrook Wafa of Sao Tome.