Scrabble: Magwanga beats top stars, crowned Eldoret champ

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Onani Mgwanga defeated a field of top stars to win his first national title during the 11th national scrabble championship played over the weekend at Eldoret Polytechnic in Eldoret.

The Homa Bay County-based player defeated East Africa seed one Allan Oyende, Benard Amuke and Fred Magu 433-317, 402-329 and 417-284 respectively in the penultimate match to win gold.

The win saw Magwanga complete 13 wins out of 18 matches with a cumulative winning spread of 882 points.

Magu took second place with 13 wins and a spread of 349 points with Amuke closing the top three with 12 wins and a spread of 791 points.

“The championship was tough, but I am glad I won. This is special to me and everyone in the championship can win if they work and train hard. Despite finishing fourth in Mombasa, today I stand here a winner so it takes focus and commitment,” Magwanga said after the win.

Wenwa Akinyi finished as the best lady in the circuit after registering 10 wins followed by Millie Kikechi with nine wins as Kenya top seeds Oyende finished a distant sixth.

In the Intermediate division, Paul Bosita from Busia won gold with 13 wins as second place went to Simeon Omolo from Kisumu County, who garnered an impressive 12 wins and a spread od 657 points.

Bronze went to Limo Kipkemoi from Nairobi County who had 12 wins and 634 points.

Fourth place went to Mike Wanjau from Uasin Gishu while Powell Kiplagat closed the podium.

The Open Division was very competitive with Equity Bank and Eldowas fighting it out for gold.

George Mwangi from Equity emerged victorious with 13 wins and 1007 points.

Peter Maaga of ELDOWAS took silver with 12 wins and 908 points while Eric Odhiambo of Nakuru County won bronze.

OVERHANG was the word with the highest score of 199 points by Joseph Mahinda while the highest combined score of 1062 points went to Bernard Amuke and Onani Magwanga.

This was the last outing before the youth head for the WESPA Youth Cup tournament in Malaysia.

The final national tournament will be hosted in Nakuru on December 8.