Adhiambo, Naomie Too clinch Makueni tour

Naomie Too and Veronica Adhiambo are the champions of the National Beach Volleyball Tour Makueni 2021 series.

The duo upset the form book as they came from behind to beat pre-tour favourites and national women’s volleyball compatriots Gaudencia Makokha and Brackcides Khadambi 2-1(18-21, 21-17, 15-10) to clinch the Makueni Tour title.

“First of all, we want to thank God for the far we’ve come since the start of the tournament on Saturday.

We started on a low note, but as we were moving on we were catching up. It was really tough and I think luck was on our side,” said Too.

“Veronica is a young player, I’m experienced, so we had to balance for her to perform and she did perfectly well.

And I’m so happy for her, she’s doing very well and the chemistry is building up,” added Too.

“It didn’t come easy, the whole competition was tough but we tried. We hope to keep the winning momentum as we head for the third tour in Mombasa,” youngsters Veronica Adhiambo said.

The two finalists teams had outstanding shows in the two-day tour held at Kiati River beach in Wote, Makueni County, where they eased past Joan Barasa and Peris Kanus 2-0(21-12, 21-6) in the quarterfinals, as well as Phosca Kasisi and Yvonne Wavinya (Homa Bay Tour champions) 2-0 (21-19, 21-17) en route to the finals.

Makokha and Khadambi who represented Kenya in the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, got a bye in the quarterfinals to sail through to the semi-finals where they made the light of the pairs of Gladys Wangui and Judith Tarus 2-0 straight sets of 21-13 and 21-10 to storm into the finals.

In the men’s category, David Neeke and Julliard Mbappe emerged winners after an impressively coming from behind 2-1 (18-21, 21-18, 15-7) to beat Jairus Kipkosgei and Elphas Makuto in a pulsating final.

Neeke and Mbappe made it to the finals after eliminating Allan Kimurko and Joseph Muliro 2-0(21-19, 21-13) in the semi-finals while Jairus and Makuto knocked out David Thuita and Elijah Bosire 2-0(21-10, and 21-18) in the other semifinal.

Volley Beach Commission of Kenya Sammy Mulinge was delighted with the turnout, hoping for many more teams to join next year when the third leg of the homologated beach volleyball tour heads to Mombasa in February 2022.