Nairobi Water women’s handball team continued with their good run after beating Sparklers 41-11 in the ongoing East and Central Africa Club Championship at Nyayo Stadium yesterday.
The side, coached by Jack Ochieng, had trounced National Cereals and Produce Board 30-20 on Monday and will now face fast-improving Kenya Defence Force in their last match on Saturday.
With yesterday win, the national league champions are top of the log with four points and remain on course to retain the title they won last in Rwanda.
Nairobi Water were a better side, dominating the proceedings from the whistle as Judith Augoh, Brenda Musambai and Brenda Ariviza combined well up-front to take a 13-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes.
Sparklers were no match for the champions as they struggled to keep pace and trailed 18- 2 at some point and 22-4 going into the break. On resumption, Nairobi Water picked from where they left, taking advantage of the Sparklers poor defence to extend lead to 30-6, thanks to Magadaline Muthoni fast breaks.
The individual efforts from Mercy Kutola were not enough for Sparklers as they continued to trail 36-9 before losing 41-11.
Musambai (11) and Ariviza (9) top-scored for the winners while Kutola (5) and Sheryl Atieno (2) led the losers’ chart. Nairobi Water coach was happy to have won his second match of the round-robin annual event.
“ We have since recorded two wins and that puts us at a good place in the event so far. However, for us to retain the title, we will have to win against KDF who have shown a lot of growth in the recent times. For instance, we won narrowly against them 27-24 in the league match last week and we hope to complete a double,” said Ochieng.