Kenya University Sports Federation (KUSF) ball games set for this weekend at the University of Eldoret have attracted 400 participants from 40 institutions.
Top teams from the six conferences will battle it out for titles in hockey, soccer, netball, handball, volleyball and basketball as they mark the end of the 2022/2023 season.
The six conferences are Western, Nyanza, Rift valley, Central, Coast, Nairobi South and Nairobi North, where each conference is expected to field two teams from each discipline.
The hosts will be battling for hockey men’s and women’s titles, soccer women, netball women, handball men, volleyball men and women and basketball women who qualified after playing in the Rift valley Conference.
KUSF Secretary General Joseph Sandagi said that the teams are ready except for a few conferences that have not presented their teams for the championships.
“We have put all measures needed to make sure that the games are a success. As of now about two conferences have not presented their teams but we hope they will do so on the closing date,” said Sandagi.
UOE director of sports Kibet Rono is optimistic that all the participating teams, now that they will have an ever-big congregation, need to make sure the championships are a success.
“This time, we are going to host one of the biggest championships ever. Initially, we used to have about 25 universities but this time, we have 40. Meaning the players will be more than all the years,” said Rono.
As the hosts, UOE will be battling to win their soccer women after finishing second last season head coach Jospaht Pilishi is optimistic that his team will perform well at home after losing last year’s title to Zetech University Side Sparks in the semifinals where Zetech went ahead to win the title.
Late last year, UOE defended their KUSF Rift Valley title after defeating hosts Moi University Main Campus.
“As the hosts, we want to try our best to win the title after losing last year. We lost in the semifinals to the title winners Zetech and coming this year, we want to try our best to secure victory,” said Pilishi.
He added that he is happy that their pre-championships preparations will pay off after playing many friendly matches in the run-up to the championships.
“The girls have been playing well in friendly matches and that is a good build-up for the championships with hopes of winning our major title at home,” said Pilishi.