Laiser Hill stop rivals Upper Hill for sevens crown

Laiser Hill are the 2016 Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) national Sevens champions after edging close rivals Upper Hill 24-20 in a hotly contested final played on Saturday afternoon at Kangaru School, Embu County.

Laiser beat last year’s champions St. Peter’s 17-12 as Upper Hill beat Maseno School 19-0 in the semis to set up a mouthwatering decider that lived up to its billing in the shorter version of the game.

David Taabu’s opened the scoring for the champions before Upper Hill’s Said Abdalla cancelled out his  try but the former would touch down twice with Mike Nyakundi adding the extras to leave the game 24-05 in favour of the champions.

The second half saw Upper Hill looking to claim a comeback going ahead to score three unanswered tries through Maxwell Omondi, George Abayo and Johnstone Olindi.

It was second time lucky for Laiser Hill who went down 17-12 to Maseno School at the same stage in 2014 at Kisii High School when they found the extra gears to claim the trophy at the last.

The final showdown between Upper Hill and Laiser Hill was a repeat of the Metropolitan final played in late May where Laiser won 19-12.

In the third placed playoffs, dethroned champions St. Peters outclassed Maseno 19-10 while Kajiunduthi from Highlands region out-shone Galana 12-10 in the Shield final.

Chavakali had something to smile of after defeating Simotwo Secondary from Coast region 26-0 in the Plate finals, while Githiga High won 19-12 against Molo Secondary in the Bowl finals.

History continued to be written in the boys hand ball after Kimilili boys from Nzoia Region lifted the title for the eighth time fter thrashing Makongeni from Metropolitan 23 -12.

Last year’s champions who are yet to lift the East African title remain to be the handball power house in the country having lifted for four straight titles with break in 2010 when Kitany took it.

“Our hope is to lift the East African title this year,” said Kimilili boys’ assistant coach Juma Eric.

“The team always bound out at the prelimary stage at the East African tournament saying that injustice to them has been their big problem in the pooling.”

In the girls’ category Moi High Kamusinga retained their title after beating their arch rivals Sega.

This year’s final was a repeat of last year’s encounter where Kamusinga outshined Sega to lift the title.
Kamusinga hammered Sega 25-12 in an entertaining match scoring in the 10th minutes of the game.

Juma the school assistant coach said that the girls have been preparing for the games in readiness to defend their title.

He says that they were afraid of meeting Sega tin the finals but the girls were composed since they have met them thrice in finals.

Team captain Liala Jecinta said that the team work and discipline was the main doing to win.
She says that the girls had put their time in training where they forfeited their mid-terms to train for tournament.