Kenyatta University KU will play United States International University-Africa (USIU-A) as the 10th Federation of African Universities Games (FASU) men’s basketball enters semis today at the Kasarani Indoor Arena.

Yesterday, USIU lost 63-73 to pool B table-toppers American University Cairo who are also scheduled to play the University of Johannesburg in the other semis today.

KU had topped pool A with Johannesburg finishing as runners up.

Elsewhere, Uganda’s Dismas Yeko from Ndejje University won the men’s 10,000m title at the newly launched six-lane artificial track at Kenyatta University.

Kenyatta University’s Emmanuel Ngeno settled for second place after clocking 30:27.8, while William Amponsah from the University of Education, Winneba in Ghana was third in 31:20.9.

Yeko said the race was tough due to the weather, adding that he wanted to run a better time.

He said that training with the likes of Olympics champion Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo has helped improved his performance. 

“I’m happy to have won the race. I started running from behind as a tactic and when there was no reaction, I decided to surge forward and no one reacted. Training for the race I had to juggle between exams and class work but I’m happy I did well,” said Yeko. 

Ng’eno, who is pursuing a Bachelor of Education degree said he was pleased with second place, although the race is not his speciality. 

“Coming in second in 10,000m has impressed me because that’s not my speciality. I normally compete in the 5,000m race which goes down tomorrow and this was just part of my training ahead of the main event,” said Ng’eno.

Strike silver

Gideon Lemerian of Dedan Kimathi University of Technology clocked 04:01.87 to strike silver in the hotly contested men’s 1500m final.

Lemerian came second behind Charles Baah of Ghana’s University of Education Winneba (UNEDW) who triumphed in 04:01.60 while Aziz Mohamed of the University of Ghana came third in 04:02.44.

“I had prepared for the race well, it was a good run for me, I practised enough last week before I came to Nairobi for these games,” Lemerian said.

“I won a scholarship race at Kip Keino Stadium in Eldoret last Friday which I used to prepare for the championships,” he added.

No Kenyan made it to the medal bracket in the men’s 400m hurdles which was won by Busani Ndlovu of South Africa in 53.92.

It was also the same case in women’s 1500m final which was bagged by Tenebeb Nega of Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University.

In football matches, Grace Wekesa was on target four times as Makerere University whitewashed hosts Kenyatta University (K.U) 4-1 in women’s football on Wednesday afternoon.

Wekesa found the back of the net in the third, eighth, 48th and 52nd minutes to give her side a deserved victory in their opening encounter.

The hosts pulled one back through Esther Sidi in the 47th minute.

“We are happy with this first victory, it’s an indication of good things in this tournament,” said Makerere captain Nalubega Yudayah.

“The early goals we had gave us confidence in the match,” she added.

Despite the heavy loss, KU head coach Tobias Ochola praised his girls saying they gave good accounts of themselves.

“We had limited time to prepare for these championships owing to the heavy coursework at the university,” he said.