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Kenyan clubs participating in the 33rd edition of the Africa Cup for Club Championship suffered back-to-back disappointments except for Butali Sugar who won bronze in the 12-team men’s competition which ended on Sunday at the Dashmesh Stadium, Sikh Union grounds Nairobi.

Sharkia from Egypt won the men’s title while Exchequers from Ghana settled for silver as the only other unbeaten side Butali Warriors walked home with bronze ware after seven days of action while in the women’s event, GRA from Ghana defended the title while Army ladies from Ghana bagged Silver as Delta Queens from Nigeria settled for bronze.

Butali overcame Nigeria’s Police Machine 3-2 in a tough fixture to secure bronze medal, in a match where the Sugar Millers had to come back from 2-1 down to win the thrilling clash in the last quarter of the game.

Commenting after their first bronze medal in the continental event, Butali Sugar’s coach Kamal Sembi told People Sports that the win was not automatic as they had to dig deep to silence Nigeria’s Police Machine who had clobbered Kenya Police 3-1 on Saturday.

“The win was not a walk in the park, we had to work hard for 60 minutes and the boys came out strong to make their effort count. The tournament has been long, playing against quality teams but we knew what to do and we fought well in the last quarter to get the two goals that brought us back into the game.

“We have fallen short of our initial target which was to go for a gold medal. Mathematics came into play because we drew with Exchequers earlier and so we dropped to feature in the bronze play-offs and we thank our sponsor Butali Sugar for the support and sacrifices made,” Butali Sugar’s coach Kamal Sembi told People Sports.

The other local men’s teams included Western Jaguars and 2017 silver medallist Kenya Police, all of who failed to make the top four cut.

In the women’s competition nine time champs Blazers coach Jos Openda will live to fight another day after losing 3-2 to the eventual winners-Army Ladies of Nigeria in the final fixture of the women’s round-robin competition.

“In a game, you win or lose, you take your chances when they present themselves or regret later.