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Author: Bernard Okumu

  • Shabana maintain title push with win against Kibera Black Stars

    Shabana maintain title push with win against Kibera Black Stars

     

    Shabana inched closer to Kenya Premier League return after defeating Kibera Black Stars 1-0 in National Super League match played Saturday at Gusii Stadium, Kisii.

    Peter Ongechi scored Shabana’s lone goal in the 45 minute to help his team move two points clear at the top of the standings with 60 points while Kibera Blackstars remains 11th with 28 points.

    Muranga Seal sustained their promotion charge by edging out Mwatate United 2-0 at Sebastian Park,Murang’a.

    John Kiplagat opned the scoring for Murang’a Seal after 30 minutes as Fabian Adikinyi doubled the hosts lead two minutes later.

    The win consolidates Murang’a seal second position on the log with 58 points, 8 points ahead of third placed Migori Youth.

    The battle for the NSL title is expected to hot up with just 5 matches remaining. At the conclusion of the campaign two top teams earn automatic qualification to the premier league.

    The third placed side battles for promotion against a third bottom finisher in the KPL with the winner over two legs earning the right to play in the top tier.

    NSL RESULTS

    Friday 2nd June 2023

    Silibwet 2-2 Mombasa Elite

    Kajiado 3-2 Vihiga United

    Migori Youth 2-0 Coastal Heroes

    MCF 0-2 Naivas

    Saturday,3rd June 2023

    Kisumu All Stars 1-2 Mara Sugar

    Shaba 1-0 Kibera Black Stars

    Muranga Seal 2-0 Mwatate United

    NSL FIXTURES

    Wednesday, 7th June 2023

    Naivas Vs Muranga Seal -Camp Toyoyo

    Coastal Heroes Vs Darajani Gogo-Mbaraki

    Vihiga United Vs Silibwet FC -Mumias Complex

    Mwatate United Vs Kisumu All Stars-Wundanyi

    Mara Sugar Vs Kajiado FC-Awendo

    Kibera Black Stars Vs Gusii United Fc -Ligi Ndogo Grounds

    Mombasa Elite Vs SS Assad FC-Mbaraki

  • Scrabble: Busia hosts national championship ahead of World games

    Scrabble: Busia hosts national championship ahead of World games

     

    The Kenya Scrabble Association has decried the lack of support from the ministry of sports ahead of the World scrabble championship in the USA later this year.

    Speaking at Chef West Hotel in Busia during the national scrabble championship that attracted participants from Kenya, Uganda, Liberia and South Africa, the outgoing chairperson scrabble Kenya Bernard Amuke urged the government to support the national team to acquire visa and financial support to boost the morale of the team.

    Kenya is the second best scrabbling team in Africa and has already earned respect on the international podium according to Amuke. It is in this spirit that the scrabble Kenya now believes investment in youth players will be key in spearheading the game internationally.

    “In order for Kenya to dominate on the international forum we have to invest in our youth and more so schools. We have huge potential in the youth if we can tap and nature that talent at a tender age,”

    Amuke noted that more scrabblers missed out on the national tournament in Gulu Uganda and this week’s national championship in Busia due to financial constraints as most rely on well-wishers to support the game.

    “Nigeria have been African champions for the reason that they enjoy support from the government and also because they have invested in the school where they pick national teams,” added Amuke.

    Richard Ngeria, senior scrabbler from Kampala who represented Uganda elite team, applauded the Kenya scrabble association for its commitment in introducing the rare game on East African in 1990 that has attracted a large following in recent days.

    “Scrabble is a good game as it keeps one memory strong besides helping with numerical skills from calculating potential scores, and with critical thinking that can get you out of a tight situation. This is why we need to embrace scrabbling in schools,” noted Ngeria.

    “You don’t have to be good at English. Even dropouts play scrabble. What matters is your ability to cram words and understand them,” said Ngeria adding that the ability to calculate words gives advantage to win the game.

    Busia scrabble secretary Erick Wamalwa want schools collaborate with Scrabble Kenya to build national team at its best

    “Scrabble can help students learn new words every time they play a round of scrabble. With every new word comes the opportunity to learn to spell better. Children that play Scrabble early on in life go on to be great spellers and good readers too,” Wamalwa.

    Over 200 scrabble players are participating at this year’s national tournament that will end tomorrow where champions will be crowned.

    Report by Absalom Namwalo, KNA BUSIA

  • Thika Queens FC: Poor second leg run took winds off our sails

    Thika Queens FC: Poor second leg run took winds off our sails

    Three time Fkf women’s premier league champions Thika Queens have vowed to bounce back next season after the team completed the just concluded 2023 campaign in fifth place.

    Thika Queens wound up their 2023 season with 33 points, 19 points adrift of champions  Vihiga Queens.

    The club had an impressive run during the first leg but appeared to lose steam as the league wore on partly due to injuries to some of the key players among them Rachael Muema .

    Wendy Achieng who this season  switched from the defence to a forward and scored a total of 17 goals emerging as the league’s second top goal scorer remarked that preparations will be key in the teams performance next season.

    Wendy’s season exploits have earned her a nomination in the forthcoming FKF Women Premier League awards where she will vie for the Most Valuable Player award against Bunyore Starlets Irene Madalina and Vihiga Queens Anita Namata.

    Thika Queens have won the title three times and their recent title came in 2020-21 season.

  • 3×3 basketball sides unveiled ahead of International assignments

    3×3 basketball sides unveiled ahead of International assignments

    National 3×3 basketball teams have been unveiled with two significant assignments lined up ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games qualifiers.

    Four teams were named including senior men and women as well as the under-23 teams in both categories.

    Fahim Juma, George Omondi and Larry Shavanga headline the men’s team. Hilda Indasi, Madina Okot and Menelisa Omondi highlight the women’s team.

    Eight players and two reserves were also named on each side.

    Kenya is ranked third in  Africa behind  Egypt and Tunisia. The teams are set to compete at the Africa beach games set for late June in Tunisia.

    Meanwhile, the women’s team has been invited for the World beach games in Indonesia.

    “This partnership between NOC-K and KBF aims to ensure seamless collaboration

    and effective teamwork as the teams prepare for their debut appearances at the Africa Beach Games in

    Tunisia in June and the World Beach Games in 2023, leading up to the highly anticipated Paris Olympics

    in 2024”, read a statement from the National Olympic Committee of Kenya,NOC-K.

  • WRC: Toyota trio lead Safari Rally entry

    WRC: Toyota trio lead Safari Rally entry

    Defending champion Kalle Rovanpera headlines a strong entry to this years WRC Safari Rally scheduled 21st-25th June in Naivasha.

    Championship leader Rovanpera and his navigator  Jonne Haltunen lead his Toyota Gazoo Rally teammates that includes 2021 winner Sebastien Ogier,Takamoto Katsuta  and Elfyn Evans.

    The M-Sport team will be seeking to snatch the Teams title from the throttle of Toyota with drivers Otto Tanak and Pierre Louis Loubet lead the charge.

    The Safari Rally one of the WRC’s iconic event has also attracted Hyundai’s Thiery  Neuville Eusapekka Lappi which means that the championship Contenders will be available to tackle the rugged terrain that the rally is famed for.

    Kajetan Kajetanowicz tops the WRC2 entry in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, while other entrants in the premier support category include Grégoire Munster (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and Karan Patel (Ford Fiesta R5).

    FIA rally star program affiliates Kenya’s Hamza Anwar and McRae Kimathi will contest the Rally3 title, a contest that has also attracted compatriots Jeremiah Wahome,Jason Bailey ,Yasin Nasser and Giancarlo Davirte.

    The Safari Rally is the 7th round on the 13 leg World Rally Championship,WRC, Calendar.

    Kalle Rovanpera leads the 30-drivers standings with 98 standings while  Otto Tanak and Sebastien Ogier are placed second and third respectively on 81 and 69 points respectively.

    Safari Rally Full entry

    Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Rally1)

    Otto Tänak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Puma Rally1)

    Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Rally1)

    Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GRRally1)

    Thierry Neuville/Martin Wydaeghe (Hyundai 12N Rally 1)

    Espapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai 120N Rally1)

    Daniel Sando/Candido Carrera (Hyundai 120N Rally1)

    Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Rally1)

    Pierre-Louis Loubet/Nicholas Gilsoul (Ford Puma Rally1)

    Jourdan Serderidis/Andy Malfoy (Ford Puma Rally1)

    Oliver Solberg/Elliot Edmondson (Škoda Fabia)

    Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia)

    Gregorio Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Fiesta)

    Martin Prokop/Zdenek Jurka (Ford Fiesta)

    Karan Patel/Tauseef Khan (Ford Fiesta)

    Carl Tundo/Tim Jessop (Škoda Fabia)

    Daniel Chwist/Kamil Heller (Škoda Fabia)

    Geogerios Visalakis/Thomas Krawszik (Ford Fiesta)

    Aakhif Virani/Azhar Bhatti (Škoda Fabia)

    Piero Canobbio/Flavio zanella (Hyundai N120)

    Samman Vohra/Gurdeep Panesar (Škoda Fabia)

    Diego Dominguez/Ragello Penate (Ford Fiesta)

    HamzaAnwar/Adnan Din (Ford Fiesta Rally3)

    Jeremiah Wahome/Victor Okundi Ford Fiesta Rally3)

    McRea Kimathi/Mwangi Kioni (Ford Fiesta Rally3)

    Jason Bailey/James Willets (Ford Fiesta Rally3)

    Yasin Nasser/Ali Katumba (Ford Fiesta Rally3)

    Giancarlo Devite/Sylvia Vindevogel (Ford Fiesta)

    Evans Nzioka/Absolom Aswani (Mitsubishi Lancer EvoX)

    Nickhil Sachania/Deep Patel (Mitsubishi Lancer EvoX)

    Minesh Rathod/Jamie Mactavish (Mitsubishi Lancer EvoX)

    Josiah Kariuki/John Ngugu (Subaru Impreza)

  • The draw for the African Women’s Olympic Football Qualifiers revealed

    The draw for the African Women’s Olympic Football Qualifiers revealed

    The  draw for the 2024 Paris Olympics Africa Women’s football qualifiers has been made by Confederation of Africa Football ,CAF, in Cairo,Egypt.

    Kenya missed out on the draw whose participation was confirmed by teams in April 2022, a period which Kenya was serving suspension by  FIFA.

    The competition, the dates of which are yet to be finalised, will decide the two African representatives who will compete at next year’s Olympic Games.

    The four-round tournament will begin with a first round that includes 18 nations, with the nine winners of the first-round matches advancing to round two where they will be joined by the seven highest-ranked teams at the last Women’s African Cup of Nations.

    In every round, teams will play each other home and away in a knockout format, with round three including the eight winners from the second round and the fourth round seeing four teams battle it out for the two Paris 2024 quotas.

    The first round of the Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament will see nine home and away matchups, with the following teams drawn to play against each other: 

    • Guinea-Bissau vs Benin
    • Guinea vs Ghana 
    • Burkina Faso vs Mali
    • Côte d’Ivoire vs Sierra Leone 
    • Namibia vs Equatorial Guinea 
    • Uganda vs Rwanda 
    • Ethiopia vs Chad
    • Congo vs Tanzania
    • Mozambique vs DR Congo 

    The winners of each of these ties will join the seven highest-ranked teams from the last Women’s African Cup of Nations in the second round. Those teams are: 

    • South Africa
    • Morocco
    • Zambia
    • Nigeria 
    • Cameroon
    • Tunisia 
    • Botswana

    12 nations will compete in the Paris 2024 women’s football tournament, with quotas distributed as follows: 

    Africa: 2 quota places 

    North, Central America and the Caribbean: 1 quota place

    South America: 2 quota places 

    Europe: 2 quota places 

    Oceania: 1 quota place 

    Host country (France)

    The Paris 2024 football tournament will take place between 24 July and 10 August 2024.

  • Miami Heat beat Boston Celtics to reach NBA finals

    Miami Heat beat Boston Celtics to reach NBA finals

    The Miami Heat halted the Boston Celtics’ remarkable fightback in the Eastern Conference Finals, clinching the deciding match 103-84 to reach the NBA finals.

    Jimmy Butler starred, scoring 28 points, seven rebounds and six assists, as the Heat, who led the seven-game series 3-0 before being pegged back to 3-3, reached this year’s showpiece.

    The first eighth seeds to reach the finals since the New York Knicks in 1999, the Heat will play the the Denver Nuggets in the best-of-seven finals.

    Game one will be played in Denver on Thursday.

    Derrick White’s dramatic buzzer beater in game six had tied the series, giving the The Celtics hope of becoming the first side in NBA history to overturn a 3-0 deficit in a play-off final.

    But alongside Butler’s efforts, Caleb Martin scored 26 points and Bam Adebayo recorded 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as the Heat silenced a passionate Boston crowd.

    Butler, 33, was named MVP of the series after averaging 24.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists.

    “We stayed together as a group,” he said.

    “We talked about going to get a tough one on the road and we did just that. My team-mates] are the reason we’re here. I know how good a team we are and we made it happen.”

    Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said he never doubted his squad’s resilience.

    “Sometimes you have to suffer for the things you really want,” he said.

    “This group has shown fortitude when there are inevitable let-downs and failures, but had that perseverance to pick yourself up, that collective spirit to keep on forging ahead.”

    The Heat are seeking a fourth NBA title and first since 2013, while The Nuggets, who beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference play-offs, are in search of a maiden championship.

  • French Open 2023: Ons Jabeur beats Lucia Bronzetti at Roland Garros

    French Open 2023: Ons Jabeur beats Lucia Bronzetti at Roland Garros

     

    Tunisian seventh seed Ons Jabeur put a lack of recent matches behind her to beat Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti in the French Open first round.

    Jabeur, whose preparations for Roland Garros were disrupted by a calf injury, won 6-4 6-1 on Tuesday.

    Before facing Bronzetti, the Wimbledon and US Open finalist had played one match since retiring injured against Iga Swiatek in Stuttgart on 22 April.

    Jabeur won in little over an hour as she avoided another early Paris exit.

    Last year she was beaten in the first round on the Roland Garros clay but avoided the same fate by making strong starts to both sets against 65th-ranked Bronzetti.

    Jabeur, 28, will face a French opponent in the second round in the shape of either world number 122 Oceane Dodin or wildcard Selena Janicijevic.

  • Nairobi Water Queens’ Ochieng Named Coach For March

    Nairobi Water Queens’ Ochieng Named Coach For March

    Jack Ochieng’ has been named the StarTimes/Sports Journalist Association of Kenya (SJAK) Coach of the Month of March 2023.

    Ochieng guided Nairobi Water Queens to yet another Kenya Handball Federation (KHF) women’s league title with zeal and vigor.

    The Jack Ochieng-led Water Queens achieved the feat after they gunned down rivals Ulinzi Shark’s 28-25 to win in a highly charged match on Saturday, March 25.

    To lay his hands on the coveted award, Ochieng’ beat two other nominees including Carlos Kaytwa who led the Kabras Sugar rugby team to the Kenya Cup title, and National Cereals and Produce Board (NPBC) coach Brian Mathews.

    In winning the award, Ochieng’ took home prize money of Ksh. 100,000, a personalized trophy, and a StarTimes 55-inch smart television set courtesy of sponsors StarTimes Kenya.

    Ochieng’ becomes the fifth recipient of the coveted award after trailblazing Dennis Mwanja of the Kenya Lioness rugby in November, NCPB men’s handball team’s Brian Mathews in December, Strathmore women’s hockey team head coach Meshack Senge in January and Butali Warriors hockey’s coach Zachary Aura in February.

    An elated Ochieng’ remarked during the presentation of the award: “It’s such a good feeling to emerge as the finest coach for the month of March. I dedicate the award to the ladies who fought bravely to rise to the occasion. The award goes to attest to our resilience and level headedness in play.”

    The Coach went on: “We did not anticipate such resilience from Ulinzi. But I am elated that the experience paid off at the eleventh hour and teamwork made the difference in this match. When we were chasing their score, we made changes to our defense and that helped us to prevail.”

    StarTimes Kenya’s Head of Public Relations and Content Syndication Myke Mwai noted that coaches are on many occasions the unsung heroes of sport “hence the noble initiative of acknowledging their input and guidance.

    “From our branding perspective and our obligations to the community, this award gives us a lot of fulfillment and we see positive impacts from sports which have over the years put the country on the world map,” noted StarTimes Kenya’s Head of Public Relations and Content Syndication Myke Mwai.

    “We have previously partnered with SJAK to sponsor the Sports Personality of the Month award and I am glad that the coaches award goes a long way in bolstering competition among tacticians to do better and that has an impact on the level of competition among players,” Mwai added.

    SJAK president James Waindi urged coaches to raise the bar higher as their efforts are appreciated and contribute to overall improved performance by the national team.

    “We are thankful to StarTimes for partnering with us since we started awarding sports personalities and coaches. We have come a long way in this journey and it is my happiness to see them remaining one of our key partners,” Waindi noted.

  • Pochetino named Chelsea Manager

    Pochetino named Chelsea Manager

    Chelsea have appointed former Tottenham and Paris St-Germain boss Mauricio Pochettino as their new manager.

    The Argentine, 51, begins his new role on 1 July 2023 on a two-year contract, with an option of a further year.

    He takes over from interim boss Frank Lampard, who guided Chelsea to 12th in the Premier League.

    “Mauricio is a world-class coach with an outstanding track record. We are all looking forward to having him on board,” the club said in a statement.

    Chelsea say Pochettino was first choice and the only manager who was brought into the club for talks.

    He will work with sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Lawrence Stewart.

    “Mauricio’s experience, standards of excellence, leadership qualities and character will serve Chelsea Football Club well as we move forward,” Winstanley and Stewart said in a statement.

    “He is a winning coach, who has worked at the highest levels, in multiple leagues and languages. His ethos, tactical approach and commitment to development all made him the exceptional candidate.”

    Pochettino is Chelsea’s sixth permanent manager in five years following the sacking of Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter earlier this season, which led to Lampard taking charge on a temporary basis.

    Chelsea have had a poor season, losing to Manchester City in the third round of both the FA Cup and League Cup.

    They also lost to Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, which ended any viable hopes of them qualifying for Europe next season.

    They closed the Premier League season with their first bottom-half finish since 1995-96.