By DONALD WELLINGTON

The wait is finally over as the Kenyan players take to the course tomorrow to defend the East Africa Golf Challenge Cup at the Great Rift Valley Golf Resort in Naivasha where they will be against five other countries.

Tomorrow’s first round will see players take each other in a singles competition in the morning. All the countries namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia being represented by teams of eight players had all registered with the East Africa Golf Confederation by Monday evening ready for the high profile championship, following the official opening ceremony by retired President Mwai Kibaki who is the also the patron of the Kenya Golf Union (KGU).

The afternoon function was, however, delayed for an hour due to un expected rain. All the teams including new-comers Ethiopia are fielding strong teams though being at home Kenya who are also the defending champions starts as the hot favourite to claim the cup.

The home team is made-up of five juniors namely Daniel Nduva, Mathew Wahome, Adel Balala and Tahir Mohamed.

The seniors in the home line-up include three of the players who formed Kenya’s team for the just concluded All Africa Amateur Team Championship in Swaziland namely John Karichu, Tony Omuli, and Robinson Owiti, who were joined in return by Justus Madoya of the Great Rift Valley, and William Odera of Kericho.

Team coach Anil Shah who is being assisted by the Great Rift Valley Resort professional Ajay Shah said the players had trained on Sunday, Monday and yesterday and that they were set for the event.

“We have gone through all the formats and I believe we have the strongest side in this year’s tournament though this is a matchplay event and it is more or less an individual ability’’ said Shah. He said the course was playing well though it required one to keep the ball straight in order to win a match, adding that teams from Uganda and Tanzania were equally strong having brought players most of whom were in the same tournament in Burundi last year.

“Our players did well in the just concluded All Africa Championship most of who are well known here in Kenya as they have featured in the many of the local events’’ said Uganda’s Coach Deo Akope. Among his top players include Willy Kitata who lost to Nelson Simwa in the Kenya Amateur Matchplay Championship, Adolf Muhumuza who was eighth in the individual title during the All Africa in Swaziland, Philip Kasozi, and youngster Daniel Baguma.

The stars in the Tanzania line-up are Nuru Mollel, John Saidi, Victor Joseph, John Leonce, and Abass Saidi. Team coach Olais Michael Mollel said his players were starving for the cup.

“ This cup has eluded us for a number of years now, but this time we have a strong team and we are going for nothing short of the title’’ said Mollel. The four-day championship which marks its 15^thyear is being sponsored by Keroche Industries supported by Mumias Sugar among others. The first round draw was due to be done soon after the official opening ceremony. pandora charms uk pandora charms uk

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 29th, 2013 at 7:53 PM and is filed under Golf News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.