OKWARA DEFENDS KENYA’S PERFORMANCE AT ZONE VI
Kenya Golf Union (KGU) chairman Francis Okwara at a past function.
By KGG REPORTER
Kenya Golf Union (KGU) chairman Francis Okwarwa has defended the national golf team’s lacklustre performance at this year’s Africa Zone VI Golf Championships in South Africa finished fifth out of 12 participating countries.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout put the seal on South Africa’s successful title defence at the tournament, with the South African number one ranked amateur belting Nyali’s Adel Balala 9 & 7 in the final round singles at Devonvale Golf and Wine Estate to put an exclamation mark on another clean sweep for the country in Africa’s most prestigious team event.
Swaziland took fourth with 14.5 points, while Kenya finished in fifth place on 13 points.
The national team’s performance seem to be taking a down ward spiral going by the fact that they won the tournament just four years ago and initially they were guaranteed of a top three finish, but fortunes seem to have dwindled.
“I can say we performed well, finishing fifth out of 12 countries is not a mean feat as you are aware that the number of participating countries increased to 12 from eight in the previous years,” said Okwara.
He added: “Namibia and Swaziland have also invested in very strong junior programmes, making the competition at the tournament very high.”
Okwara admitted that the team missed the services of Royal’s Jay Sandhu whose papers did not come out in time and ended up missing the trip, forcing the team to travel with only eight players.
On the way forward, Okwara said: “We need our juniors to play more frequently because the prime age of every sports people is between 15 and 30 years and in turn we will soon be getting the results.”
FINAL LOG STANDINGS:
1 South Africa 23
2 Zimbabwe 19
3 Namibia 15.5
4 Swaziland 14.5
5 Kenya 13
6 Malawi 12
7 Mauritius 11.5
8 Zambia; Uganda 9
10 Lesotho; Botswana 8.5
12 Mozambique 0.5 nike air max 1 nike air max 1