Top tacticians battle for Soya honours

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

With only ten days remaining before the annual Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya), five coaches have been listed for the Coach of Year Award. 

Tennis coach Rosemary Owino is on the verge of making history as the second female coach to stand tall among her male counterparts. She will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Caroline Kola who was feted in 2012 for successfully guiding the National Deaf Athletics team at the World Championships. 

However, she faces stiff competition from Kevin ‘Bling’ Wambua, Telkom hockey team coach Jos Openda, KCB rugby coach Curtis Olago and Prisons Kenya women volleyball team coach Josp Barasa.

The Soya gala which has been co-sponsored by Mombasa County, National Social Security Fund, Communication Authority, Kenya Pipeline, Kenya Power, LapFund, New KCC, Kenya Ports Authority, GOTv and Protel Studios will be held at Fort Jesus on January 11. Just like Kola, Owino will be hoping to outshine Openda who is also a favourite to win.

Owino will be hoping that her good show in 2018 which saw her guide Kenya’s team back to Davis Cup Euro/Africa Group II tennis championship after 13 years will give her an advantage over the other four coaches.

On his part Wambua will also be hoping to impress the panel of charges after guiding the Kenya Lionesses to their first ever Africa 7s title.

‘Bling’ as he is popularly known led the Kenyan girls in lifting the Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens trophy in Gaborone, Botswana in May with a 29-7 win over Uganda in the final.

Telkom coach Openda once again led his charges in bagging the Kenya Hockey Union league title without losing a match.

He also led Telkom to winning the Africa Cup of Club championships.

Another coach who has been nominated for this award before, but did not win is KCB’s Olago who will be hoping that he will be lucky this time round.

Olago led KCB RFC to defending the Kenya Cup, this time lifting it unbeaten. The bankers, however, lost the Enterprise Cup and finished third overall in the 2018 National Sevens Series.

On his part Prisons Barasa led his charges in reclaiming the Kenya Volleyball Federation league title from rivals Kenya Pipeline.