Sevens rugby dominates Soya awards

Collins Injera, the 2009 International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens rugby circuit top scorer on Friday cemented his name in the country’s sports folklore when he was crowned the new Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year award in the men’s category.

World 10,000m champion, Linet Masai, scooped the women’s title for her achievement in Berlin that saw her break the duck, 12 years on, to win the longest track competition after Sally Barsosio’s triumph in Athens.

“It would feel really good if I was to win this title. Getting the Soya award is the ultimate crown any athlete wants to hold and I really want to win it,” said Masai in an earlier interview.

Masai, who is also the world cross-country 8km women’s silver medallist, said for those who have not been lucky to win yesterday, they should do more and even sacrifice for the good of the team to earn recognition.

New season ahead

“It is not the end of the road. There is still next year. If it is me or anyone else that has not won, we have a season ahead of us to really show our skills. It is in our hands, we can all win. But we must realise we need to put in more effort,” she said.

Injera, who was honoured in absentia by the gala’s chief guest and Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, is away in George, South Africa, for the second leg of the IRB World Sevens Series. He has amassed 11 tries in the new IRB season.

He beat world marathon champion Abel Kirui of Administration Police to second while Gregory Oluoch, a world champion in karate, was third.

Ezekiel Kemboi, the world 3,000m steeplechase champion and Jason Dunford of swimming were the other nominees making the final five.

Masai, who is just 18 years old, stunned the world when she sprinted past Meseret Defar of Ethiopia to win gold in Berlin. This gave her the edge as she came up against another track star, Vivian Cheruiyot, the world 5,000m champion, who came in second. Third placed was another world champion, karate fighter Carolyne Tollo.

Florence Kiplagat, the world cross-country 8km champion, who edged Masai out in Amman, Jordan, in March, and Doreen Nabwire, a football player, were the other nominees.

After a six-year reign, track and field men athletes were knocked off the winners’ podium by rugby players.

As was widely expected, the national sevens rugby side took the Team of the Year award, with Injera scooping the men’s title and Benjamin Ayimba taking the Coach of the Year prize, taking over from athletics’ Julius Kirwa. Ayimba received overwhelming votes to beat Sofapaka Football Club coach, Robert Matano, and athletics’ Peter Mathu.

Soya patron Paul Tergat said it’s been a long six-year journey since the awards started, and remained optimistic that their objective has been met.

“Soya has become a permanent fixture on the calendar of many sports disciplines and corporate institutions. The winners are held in high esteem, and why not? They should enjoy their moment of glory and reflect on past performances and victories as a reason to propel them to do even more,” said Tergat.

It was a close call for the former world marathon record holder to predict the winners, and yesterday he noted that the standards of the game had gone up, forcing the panel of judges to raise the bar in sieving the nominees.