Mixed results at regional showpiece

Highway Secondary School kicked off their maiden hunt for East Africa Schools competition football glory as they were held to 1-1 draw by Kiwira Coal Mines of Tanzania in an entertaining match played on Sunday evening in Arusha, Tanzania.

Highway dominated most of the match but fell behind as Kiwira Coal Mines drew the first blood at the stroke of the first half courtesy of Raphael Lucas header. Highway had to put up a spirited fight and equalized just as the second half began, through Charles Fiod Otieno’s penalty.

This match had been slated for Friday, but had to be pushed to curtain raise the competition’s opening ceremony that was graced by Tanzania Prime Minister and Uganda’s Sports Minister on Sunday.

Highway’s Deputy Principal Eric Wandavusi who also doubles up as the Team Manager, continued to exude confidence in his team’s capabilities of going all the way to the finals.

“We really tried. It was not an easy opening match. My boys gave everything and came close. We look forward to gaining momentum in our next game on Monday (yesterday evening),” he told People Sport.

With the results, Highway sits third in the group with one point as they set to face St.Andrews from Uganda in their second Pool A match today. Uganda’s Kibuli Secondary School top the group with six points.

In the other match, Kenya’s national champions Ebwali suffered yet another setback after they lost a second consecutive match putting their qualifications for the semi finals in limbo.

Ebwali lost 3-0 against Buddo of Uganda. They had lost their opening match on Friday 1-0 to Katoro of Tanzania.

Ebwali will play their last pool B match today.

Six times East Africa Girls defending champions Wiyeta were off to a wonderful start as they outclassed Uganda’s Noa girls 3-1 to enhance their chances of making it to the knockout stages.

However, it was a tough outing to Dagoretti Mixed of Kenya who were beaten 2-1 by Uganda’s Kawempe Muslims as they conceded the losing goal in the 90th minute.

In netball, Kobala thrashed Tanzania’s Katoro 46-29 after taking a 26-15 lead at half time.

In rugby 7s, Koyonzo making a maiden appearance to this competition put up an impressive start as they beat Ntare of Uganda 17-0.

In handball, Kenyan teams struggled to match up to their competitors. In the boys’ category, Kamito were beaten 39-29 by ES Kigoma of Rwanda while in the girls’ handball category St Joseph’s Kitale narrowly lost 31-29 to Kawanda School of Uganda.

In boys’ volleyball, Cheptil of Kenya, having had an impressive start as they won 3-1 their first match against Burembe school of Uganda suffered a setback yesterday as they were beaten 3-1 (18-25, 18-25, 25-20, 20-25) by Namukongo of Uganda.

Girls’ champions Kwanthanze of Kenya started their title defence strongly after beating Katikamu of Uganda 3-0 (25-10, 25-10, 26-24). Another Kenyan side Keseson beat St Elizabeth, Mbarara of Uganda 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-23).