Kenyan juniors ready for East Africa tourney
What you need to know:
- The individual championships were dominated by Kenyan players. Kenya won all the championship matches except the boys' under-14.
- In the boys 16 and Under, Kael Shah, who is based at Sanchez Casal Academy in Spain joined his team mates, Derrick Ominde and Bradley Onsongo in dismissing all their East African counterparts.
- The team beat Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, Seychelles, and Comoros in identical scores of 3-0.
Kenya will be hoping for a good outing at this year's East African Tennis Championships that serves off on January 6 at the Gymkhana club in Dar es Salaam.
The Tanzania Tennis Federation will play host host to Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Uganda, Burundi and Comoros in the annual tourney that will go on till January 15.
Kenya Open champion Angela Okutoyi will lead the country's title defence alongside twin sister Roselida Asumwa and Alicia Owegi in the girls' Under-16 category, while Isami Brandon, Raymond Oduor, Edmond Ogega will look to keep the the boys' Under 16 crown. Liberty Kibue, Ruinclife Ominde, Gilbert Wechuli will fly the country's flag in the boys' Under-14 tourney.
In the girls' under-14, the team comprising Cynthia Cheruto, Radha Raja and Faith Urasa will once again hoping to retain the title they claimed last year in Nairobi.
The team, which will be flagged off on Friday at the Nairobi Club, is expected to leave the country on Saturday.
Okutoyi, the reigning Sports Personality of the year (Soya) most promising athlete, teamed up with Asumwa to win all their round robin matches in the team event without dropping a set. Together with Owegi, the team beat both Tanzania and Rwanda 3-0 to finish top of the group last year.
The individual championships were dominated by Kenyan players. Kenya won all the championship matches except the boys' under-14.
In the boys 16 and Under, Kael Shah, who is based at Sanchez Casal Academy in Spain joined his team mates, Derrick Ominde and Bradley Onsongo in dismissing all their East African counterparts.
The team beat Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, Seychelles, and Comoros in identical scores of 3-0.
In the 14 and under boys' category Kenya settled for second position as Burundi proved tougher for the young trio of Raymond Riziki, Edmond Ogega and Liberty Kibue. Edmond won his singles match against Abdul Nuru 6-1 6-1, Raymond lost his singles against Kashidi Moussa 1-6 4-6.
They thereafter had to play the doubles as a decider and the Burundi pair of Kashid and Abdul Nuru won with a thin margin of 6-4 7-5.
