Telkom and Malkia highlight Soya women team nominees

Telkom players at City Park.ON 22/09/2018(Jenipher Wachie, Standard)

Fresh from winning a 10th Africa Cup of Club championships title, Telkom hockey team has been nominated for the Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya) women’s team of the year category. 

They will be up against the Kenya national women’s rugby 7s team (Lionesses) Equity Bank Hawks, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and the national women’s volleyball team (Malkia Strikers).

Nairobi Water handball team and Kenya Prisons women’s volleyball team made the preliminary top seven but did not make the final list of five.

Telkom had a successful year reclaiming the continental title following a 2-0 win over perennial rivals and 2017 winners Ghana Revenue Authority. On the local scene they were unstoppable bagging a record 21st title on an unbeaten run. They will be hoping that they bag their second Soya award having won in 2014.

Lionesses on the other hand defied all odds to win the elusive African title for the first time after beating Uganda 29-7 in the final.

At the Hong Kong Sevens which was a qualifier for the World Sevens Series Core status, the Kevin Wambua coached side reached the Cup semis after losing in sudden death 12-7 to South Africa, an improvement from 2017 where they reached the quarters.

They had topped Pool X with victories over Papua New Guinea, South Africa and Mexico. In the quarters Kenya beat Argentina then lost to South Africa in the semis.

At the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast Australia, the team finished sixth after losing 40-5 to Fiji in the fifth place playoff.

Equity Bank Hawks had a good year winning their maiden FIBA Africa Zone Five Club basketball title with a 70-54 win over rivals KPA.

There was no looking back for the hawk-eyed bankers who subjected KPA to double misery when they beat them 3-1 in the Kenya Basketball Federation Women’s Premier League final playoffs to recapture their title.

KPA managed to pick silver in the FIBA Africa Zone Five Club basketball championship and finished second in the league.

For the Malkia Strikers, they qualified to play at the World Championships in Japan after finishing second at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament held in Cameroon in October.

While in Japan, the Kenyans were pooled in a tough group that included Serbia, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Malkia Strikers registered the country’s first win on the global stage after straight sets win over Kazakhstan in the opening match of the World Championships.

The SOYA gala which has been co-sponsored by Mombasa County, National Social Security Fund (NSSF), Communication Authority (CA), Kenya Pipeline, Kenya Power, LapFund, New KCC, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), GOTv and Protel Studios will be held at Fort Jesus next Friday.

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