Nakuru East shine in Nakuru Governor's tourney

Nakuru East started their campaign to win the football tournament in the inaugural Nakuru Governor Sports Tournament with a comfortable 2-0 win over rivals Nakuru West 2-0 in a thrilling match at Afraha Stadium open grounds on Tuesday.

The tournament, which will involve teams from all the11 sub counties, will also feature women football, volleyball for both men and women and sitting volleyball.

In the women's volleyball opening match, Nakuru East overcame Nakuru West 2-1 in a closely contested match.

In the sitting volleyball, Nakuru East were made to fight every inch of their way before squeezing a slim 15-13 win over the hard-fighting Nakuru West .

Speaking at the launch of the tournament, Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui said the aim of the competition is to engage the youth to keep them from drug abuse.

“We want to bring the youth together and help them discover their hidden talents as majority are wasting away in drug abuse and putting their sporting future at risk," said Kinyanjui.

At the same time, he said sports is a powerful tool which can bring people together and form a powerful cohesion that would see the county discover more talents.

He announced that his government will provide all the participating teams with sporting gear during the tournament. Kinyanjui announced that Sh70 million has been set aside for the construction of the athletics camp at Keringet and a 20-acre piece of land for the project has been purchased by the devolved unit.

“Nakuru is home of athletics talents such as Faith Chepng’etich who is an Olympics champion and with the right support our junior athletes can become world beaters," added Kinyanjui.

Chepng’etich is a middle distance runner and hails from athletics rich Keringet zone and is the current Olympic and world champion in the women’s 1,500m race.

She clinched the Olympic title in the Rio Olympics in 2016 and the following year she won the world title in London. Geoffrey Kirui,