Naomi leads charge at Gaborone games

Kenya’s youth golf team was only three shots behind joint leaders South Africa and Nigeria at the close of Tuesday’s round one of the 2014 Africa Youth Games in Gaborone Botswana.

Kenya’s top female golfer Naomi Wafula shot one over par 73 and national junior and senior team player Adel Balala fired 75 for Kenya’s total of 148 gross.

Each of the 12 countries participating in the golf section of the Youth Games is being represented by a team of four players, two boys and two girls and the best score of the best girl and best boy counts towards the team aggregate in the 54-hole battle.

The remaining Kenyan players, Tahir Said shot 76 and Mary Monari carded 84 gross.

LEADING LADY

In the fight for the individual title, Naomi Wafula led by two shots from Namibia’s Caro Els and her team-mate Jessica Dreesbiemieke while Nigeria’s Anita Uwadia was next on 76 gross.A total of 2,500 participants from 54 nations are competing in the African continent games.

Meanwhile South Africa’s Kyle McClatchie who a month ago led his country South Africa to victory in the Africa Junior Golf Championship in Zambia, shot an excellent six under par 66 to lead his team to the top of the leaderboard.

His female counter-part Eleonora Galletti carded 79 for a total of 145 gross, tying for the top place with hot charging Nigerians whose top player Tokunbo Pedro fired 69 in addition to Anita Uwadia’s 76 to also close day one with 145.

Namibia was a distant away in fourth place with a team score of 159 which included Caro Els’s 75 and Kasoma Paulino’s 84.

Tunisia was 10 shots further behind in fifth place on 169 and ahead of Swaziland with 176 gross. South African Kyle McClatchie led the boys individual title hunt with his 66 which was three shots better than Nigeria’s Tonkubo Pedro and five shots better than team-mate Hendrik Johanness du Plessis on 71 and Zimbabwe’s Stuart Krog.

Kenya’s Adel Balala was in fifth place on 75 gross. The second round was still on at the time of writing.