Parliamentary Games: It's raining gold, silver in regional championships

Eugene Mwalwa of Uganda is challenged by Dennis Mamaza of East African Legislative assembly during 14th edition of the East African Community inter parliamentary games at Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa. [Omondi Onyango,Standard]

More medals continued to trickle in as Kenyans dazzled in darts at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa in the ongoing 14th edition of the East African Community (EAC) Inter-Parliamentary Games being held at the Coast.

Nominated Member of Parliament Jackson Kosgei pinned down Alex Bahati of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) with a 2-0 victory before dismissing his compatriot Tim Wanyonyi (Westlands) 2-1 to strike gold in sitting darts (category for Persons with Disabilities).

On the other hand, Kenya’s team captain Wanyonyi left no stone unturned as he battled Bahati for silver, beating the latter  2-1 to finish runner-up.

The impressive run by Kosgei and Wanyonyi now brings Kenya’s medal tally to 7 (3 gold, 2 silvers and 1 bronze) at the ongoing championships. The other two gold medals were struck by men’s 4x100m team quartet of 
Vincent Kawaya (Mwala), Josses Lelmengit (Emgwen), Charles Nguna (Mwingi West) and Benard Kitur (Nandi) as Makueni Woman Representative Rose Museo Mumo, who successfully defended her women’s darts title in the games, added the other.

Kawaya also won silver in men’s 100m while Manyatta MP Gitonga Mukunji won bronze in men’s 400m.

“We are here to lift both individual and team titles and so far so good in both categories,” Wanyonyi told Standard Sports.

Wanyonyi highlighted the importance of the ongoing games saying they are crucial for the EAC integration.

“As PWDs we are also pushing for wheelchair basketball to be introduced to give us more variety of sports to chose from,” he said.

And how did the Kenya darts team prepare for the ongoing event at the Coast?

“We did a lot of practice at the Kenya Parliament where we have dart boards. We did our exercises individually and as a group, this is a game of mathematics so we practiced over and over so as to be both fit and sharper,” said Wanyonyi.

Part of their preparations also involved going to the gym which Wanyonyi says has kept them away from unnecessary injuries.

Meanwhile, Kenya men’s volleyball team, who are out to defend their title for the 10th time, continued to soar high in the tournament, winning a five-set thriller over Burundi on a tense Wednesday night.

The hosts won 3-2 (35-21, 11-25, 14-25,25-23, 15-11) with Alfred Mutai emerging Man of The Match with his powerful spikes that proved instrumental for the sweet victory.

At times, his exceptional performance at critical moments helped the home team maintain their composure during the intense final exchanges.