Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

Giants fell as 2020 Nyamira County Secondary Schools Sports Association (NCSSSA) Term One Games curtains came down.

The climax of the four-day championship at Nyansiongo High School was on Friday in the finals where upsets were the general rule as new champions emerged.

Fancied Sironga Girls (basketball), Nyambaria Boys (basketball), who have ruled the county in the previous edition were shown dust in a final like no other.

Other champions that never saw the end of the day to tell the story were Marindi Girls (handball), Nyambaria (handball boys), Gesure (rugby 7s) and Nyambaria Boys (rugby 15s).

Fifth Final

Sironga playing in their fifth consecutive final could not believe what befell them especially after starting well in the first quarter taking a 9-7 lead, but Mokomoni Girls, appearing only in their second time in the county championship, produced a surmountable run of play in the subsequent quarters to win the match 29-26 and emerge new girl’s basketball champions, and in the process ending Sironga’s long run dominance in the county.

Before the finals, Sironga had eliminated former champions Ekenyoro Girls 30-7 to put themselves in pole position to defend their title while Mokomoni had knocked out Manga Model 32-18 to sail through to the final stage.

The second casualty was Nyambaria Boys in the boys’ basketball final. Nyansiongo Boys playing at their homeground court, took defending champions Nyambaria to task in a hotly contested final, holding on to knock out Nyambaria Boys 64-40 to emerge new champions.

In handball, defending champions Marindi Girls and Nyambaria Boys, failed to go past the preliminaries, leaving Masosa Girls and Marindi Boys rule the show.

Masosa Girls beat Ikonge Girls 14-8 to lift the girl’s title while Marindi Boys upstaged Matutu Boys 16-11 to lift the boy’s crown.

In rugby 7s, defending champions Gesure Boys never made it past the sub county  championship, leaving Enkinda SDA Boys to beat Gekano Boys 12-5 in a pulsating final to lift the sevens trophy while rugby 15s, defending champions Nyambaria Boys bowout in the semifinals after losing to eventual winners Gesiaga Boys 4-3 on penalties. In the finals, Gesiaga beat Omonayo Boys 9-3 to be crowned new rugby 15s champions.

Winners

Speaking after the championships, games county secretary, Hesbonia Nyauma urged all the winners to up their game ahead of the regional games.

“The teams in all the events were not well polished to conclusively say they were excellent, but they were good teams, alot needs to be done for the teams to favourably compete at the region,” observed secretary Hesbonia Nyauma.

“In terms of organisation, it was a nightmare, with zero finances, the championship almost came to a standstill but I thank our teachers for working tirelessly till we finished well,” he said.