Prisons claim double Chairman’s Cup titles

Kenya Prisons men’s volleyball team embrace after victory in a past tournament

MURANG’A, Kenya, Apr 30 – Kenya Prisons men’s and women’s volleyball clubs picked a superb double, winning the inaugural Nairobi Water Chairman’s Cup open tournament which ended Sunday at Ndakaini, Muranga County.

The reigning  men’s national champions beat Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) by straight sets (25-19,25-22,25-17) in a one side final while their female colleagues and African bronze medalists demolished Kenya Commercial Bank by a similar margin of sets (25-16,25-18,25-20) to complete the sweet double for the officers.

The win for the warders was a welcome result for head coach Gideon Chenje who lost his league match to General Service Unit (GSU) last Friday at the same venue which hosted its first ever competitive volleyball tourney.

Prisons (men) sailed to the final after seeing off their colleague from Mombasa 3-0 (30-28,25-18,25-21) while the army men saw off host Nairobi Water (18-25,25-20,25-19,25-22) in the other semis.

But it was in the quarter final where fans were treated to drama.

KDF laid a perfect ambush on GSU, the 2015 Kenya Volleyball Federation league champions and the plan paid off when they found the opponents flat foot to inflict a convincing straight sets victory (25-21,25-20,29-27) to storm the semis.

The result was perfect revenge by the army men on GSU who had beaten them by three sets to one in the finals of the opening tournament held in Nyeri County.

Water too pulled some trick trick on Forest Rangers when they splashed the sewer on the forest guards with a straight sets spanking (28-26,25-17,-20) in the other quarter final.

Prisons Mombasa reached their second semi final but their fair run was cut short by their seniors in the semis.

The same drama also unfolded in the women’s competition where Kenya Pipeline missed their first final in as many years. Also crashing out were the hosts Nairobi Water who bowed out in the quarters.

Despite fielding two teams, Pipeline crashed out after their developmental side, Pipeline B, went down to Kenya Commercial Bank 3-1 (25-13, 29-27,18-25,25-19) with the senior side bowing out to Prisons in the other semis on a sister 3-1 sets (24-26,25-16,25-16,25-17).

Japheth Munala could not help but watch his error prone side go down to Prisons for a third time this month.

“We had many errors against Prisons but I am not concerned by the two defeats to Prisons. We hope to bounce back in Eldoret,” observed Munala.

“It was difficult to watch both teams , especially the junior side which needed my presence on the touchline, but I couldn’t leave the seniors because of the nature of their game,” added Munala.

-By Elvince Joshua-

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