Peerless Telkom set sights on women’s African title

Telkom have now turned their focus on recapturing the Africa Clubs title after they retained the women’s hockey Premier League title for unprecedented 19th consecutive time, their 21st in total.

Head coach Jos Openda, who was in praise of his charges, advised them not to lose focus and train hard for the Africa Clubs Championships set for December 17 to 23 in Abuja, Nigeria.

It’s Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), who stopped Telkom’s charge for their sixth consecutive continental Cup success in January this year in Accra, beating the Kenyan hockey queens 1-0 in the final.

In total, Telkom have lifted the trophy nine times.

Telkom, who are yet to lose the national title since reclaiming the diadem from Sliders in 1999, tossed to their record 21st success on Sunday after second-placed Strathmore University's Scorpions were held to a goalless draw by Amira Sailors at City Park Stadium, Nairobi.

Telkom are yet to lose locally in six years now. The draw meant Telkom now have an unassailable lead of 33 points from 11 matches.

Scorpions, on 28 points, have one match left against the record winning champions to end the season.

Scorpions needed to beat Amira so as to close in on Telkom and set up a potential title-decider on December 9, when the top two sides clash in the season-ender.

Realistically, even if Scorpions were to win against Amira and Telkom, it could have been an uphill task to lift the title considering the huge goal difference between the two sides.

Telkom have a goal difference of 58 compared to Strathmore’s 26. Therefore Scorpion would need to win their remaining matches with huge margins, while hoping Telkom lose theirs heavily.

“We need to reclaim our continual bragging rights in December and my girls know what to do,” said Openda, who thanked his players for upholding the highest standards of discipline in the league.

“Our only challenge this year was to win the league without conceding any goals but unfortunately, we conceded three,” said Openda. That happened in Telkom’s 5-2 thrashing of Sliders and 6-1 crushing of Amira Sailors.

Openda also thanked their sponsors Telkom and the families of the players for making it happen for yet another season.

In the other women’s Premier League match, United States International University (USIU) Spartans crushed Sliders 3-0 to stay third but with an improved tally of 16 points.

Veronica Maua and Beatrice Mbugua’s goals in the second quarter gave USIU a 2-0 lead at the break.

Skipper Grace Akumu would seal the victory for the varsity lassies with the last quarter field goal.

On Saturday, Butali Sugar maintained their lead at the summit of the men’s Premier League, stretching their tally to 54 points with a 2-0 win over Greensharks at City Park.

Merteen Fonteyn and Seth Oburu scored in quick succession in the 45th and 47th minutes respectively to hand Butali victory.

Butali lead defending champions Kenya Police by three points following Police’s 2-1 midweek victory against Parkroad Badgers.

While Butali have two matches to go, Police have four matches to complete their season.

Nairobi Simba pulled away from the relegation zone when they made light work of visiting Nakuru thrashing them 5-0. Simba climbed two places to seventh with 23 points.

Strathmore University's Gladiators captain Festus Onyango starred in their 2-1 win over Parkroad Badgers 2-1 at City Park on Sunday.

Victory for Gladiators sends them fourth with 29 points, while Badger drop to eighth following Simba's resounding win.