Upper Hill in Metropolitan semis, St. Peter's retain title

Sevens rugby champions Upper Hill on Friday stormed into the semi-finals of the Metropolitan Region secondary schools Term Two ‘A’ games at Makueni Boys Secondary.

The Nairobi County champions finished top of Pool ‘A’ after claiming two wins and a draw in three matches to finish top of their pool with seven points.

Upper Hill will this morning take on home side Makueni Boys, who finished second in Pool ‘B’, in the first semi-final while Laiser Hill from Kajiado County - who finished second in Pool ‘A’ - will be up against Muvuti High from Machakos.

The winners will clash in the final to be played in the afternoon as the three-day event comes to a close.

Upper Hill kick-started their title defence yesterday with a thrilling a 7-7 draw against Laiser Hill followed by an emphatic 79-0 win over Mbooni Boys and ended their preliminary matches with a 66-0 thrashing of Katangi to sail into the last four.

Upper Hill captain Phares Mbadi led from the front with eight tries followed by Max Omondi and Johnstone Olindi who each touched down five times each from the preliminary matches.

Olindi was also topped the team’s conversion chart as he kicked in a total of nine conversions as the Nairobi team underlined their supremacy.

Upper Hill coach Victor Walgwe remains confident his charges can successfully retain their title and qualify for the nationals.

“Our first priority is obviously to reach the final which will guarantee us a spot in the nationals,” Walgwe told Saturday Nation Sport on phone Friday.

Laiser Hill on the other hand will be eager to reach the final and claim the final. The Kajiado champions followed up their draw with Upper Hill with back to back wins over Katangi (41-0) and Mbooni (59-0) to sail to the semis.

In athletics, Nairobi County schools once again dominated the track events to underline their dominance in the sport. The county clinched the 800m, 10,000m, 3,000m and 5000m boys’ and girls’ titles.

Andrew Lorot, the 2014 Africa Junior Cross Country silver medallist, won the boys’ 10,000m in 28:20.2 with Beatrice Cheburet of Riruta Central winning the girls’ race after clocking 35:24.8.

Lorot’s younger brother Nicholas Kiplagat also from Riruta Central won the boys 3000m race after clocking 8:23.72 with Winfred Mutile winning the girls’ 3,000m contest in 9:36.25.

Meanwhile, St Peter’s Secondary School retained sevens rugby title in Nzoia Region games at Eregi Teachers Training College and Chavakali High School grounds on Friday.

National champions St Peter’s beat Chavakali High from Vihiga County 22-12 in the final. Both teams, however, qualified to represent Nzoia Region in next month’s nationals set for Embu.

Champions Moi Girl’s Kamusinga of Bungoma County retained girls’ handball title after beating Mukumu Secondary of Kakamega County 32-14 in the final.

In girls’ netball final, Mukuyu Secondary School from Kakamega beat Kikai from Bungoma 35-26 to lift the title.

In the under-16 boys' football semi final matches, Ndivisi Secondary School from Bungoma County defeated Chavakali Secondary School from Vihiga county 5-4, while St. Anthony saw off Butere Secondary 2-0.

In the girls' semi final encounters, Wiyeta (Trans Nzoia) thrashed Bungoma's Chebukaka Secondary School 4-1, as Butere Girls edged out Propi Secondary School (West Pokot) 1-0 to storm the final.