Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) is determined to defend their women’s rugby 7s title at the upcoming Kenya University Sports Federation (KUSF) national play-offs.
The indoor and outdoor games will be staged at Kabarak University between Thursday 19th and Saturday 21st this month, featuring 15 indoor disciplines, among them badminton, table tennis, darts, scrabble, taekwondo, karate and chess, among others, and five outdoor sports: woodball, baseball, rugby 7s, rollball and 3×3 basketball.
The university’s games tutor Geoffrey Barasa is optimistic the three-day championship play-offs will bring glory to the institution, which has assembled teams from universities that qualified through various conferences across the country.
Barasa, whose side beat Karatina University to win last year’s title, believes MMUST are among the favourites heading into the competition that will feature 16 institutions.
“We are taking a formidable team for the championships after winning the Western Conference title. To defend the title, we engaged in various friendly matches to test the players’ preparedness, and they are ready. At the same time, we competed at the BingwaFest, losing in the semifinals. That shows how ready we are for the competition in Kabarak,” said Barasa.
He also expressed confidence in the university’s Scrabble team following their dominance at the East Africa University Games.
“We won the East Africa title in Scrabble, so we have every reason to target the national title too,” added Barasa, who will travel to Kabarak with teams in women’s rugby 7s, swimming, karate, taekwondo, badminton, scrabble, chess and darts.
KUSF Secretary General Joan Adalo is confident the play-offs will deliver high-quality competition, noting strong team registration.
“We have received 90 per cent of all qualified teams registering for the competition. Rift Valley, as the host conference, has assured us of good competition, and they are ready,” said Adalo.
She revealed that rugby 7s for both men and women has attracted the highest entries, with 16 teams each, compared to other disciplines that have fewer than 15.
