Commonwealth Games: Blades beat Ghana to ninth place finish

National women’s hockey side, The Blades have a reason to smile as they finally picked a win at the ongoing Commonwealth Games after beating continental rivals Ghana on post-match penalties to finish ninth on the overall ranking.

The Jackline Mwangi-led side had suffered embarrassing defeats in the opening pool B matches, finishing last in pool B as did Ghana in pool A.

The Blades opened their campaign with a 16-0 loss in the hands of New Zealand before falling 8-0 to Australia in the subsequent game. Kenya lost 11-0 on Monday to Scotland before completing their group stage matches with a 15-0 thrashing by South Africa.

In the 9/10 place playoff match against Ghana, Grace Bwire opened the scoring in fifth minute to give Kenya the lead in the first quarter, an advantage that remained for the first period.

Ghana came back for the second quarter rejuvenated and equalized through a shot penalty goal in the 26th minute through Nafisatu Umaru for the match to head to the half-time break in a stalemate.

Two minutes into the third quarter, Ghana found the back of Kenya’s goal to take the lead for the first time, the goal coming off another shot penalty corner. Flavia Mutiva, however, came to Kenya’s rescue with two minutes left on the clock leveling the score to send the match to penalties.

Goalkeeper Millicent Adiambo was the hero of the penalties, saving Ghana’s last kick in sudden death to hand Kenya the 3-2 win.