Scrabble: Gitonga retains national title in Kitui tourney

Kenya Seed two Nderitu Gitonga in action during the second circuit of the National Scrabble Championship on February 10, 2019 in Kisumu.(Washington Onyango/Standard)

East Africa seed two Nderitu Gitonga bagged his second consecutive national title after he defended his Kitui Scrabble National title over the weekend at Parkside Villa, in Kitui.

Gitonga registered 13 wins out of the 18 matches played with a winning spread of 699 points to win gold.

Onani Magwanga also bagged 13 wins but with an inferior winning spread of 592 points to finish second as Michael Gongolo finished third with 12 wins and 915 points.

Stanley Njoroge from Kiambu and Tony Ochola finished fourth and fifth respectively.

The win saw the Gitonga leapfrog Allan Oyende to become Kenya seed one with an overall ranking of 1,921 points as Oyende, who finished a distanced sixth, taking the second spot in the national rankings with 1,886 points.

Speaking after the victory, Gitonga said he is determined to improve on his last year’s performances both locally and internationally.

“It’s a good feeling to win the first national circuit of the decade ahead of a very competitive season ahead,” said the Kirinyaga-based player.

In the Intermediate division, Edwin Bii won gold with a round to spare after finishing with 15 wins as Tom Mboya, who won 12 games, finished second.

Francis Gichu from MMUST, who had 11 wins, won bronze medal as well as the best student award for the second time in a row.

Fourth place went to Robert Amuti from Mombasa while host Robert Nguli was fifth.

The Open Division was competitive throughout the 16 games with Lawrence Matunda of Equity Bank emerging victorious with a total 13.5 wins, despite his slow start.

Teresia Muthoni took silver with 12.5 wins in her maiden tournament while Nicole Okoth of AFC won bronze.

Manase Otieno registered the highest winning score of 589 points in his match against Julius Auka.