Only way is up: SOYA Awards Most Promising Girl declares

By her own admission, teenage basketball star Medina Okot did not expect to be on the podium last Friday as renowned sports personalities gathered for the annual SOYA Awards gala.

But as fate would have it, the 18 year old had a surreal moment as she and her coaches rose from their seats to receive the 2022 Most Promising Girl award.

“I was shocked,” Medina Okot reminisced of the moment. “Going through the history of the awards, I instantly knew that I was in a tight race having to battle my colleagues from athletics. To have my name called out was surprising and humbling at the same time.”

Humbling it was, as she toppled huge names to the award beating World U20 3000m steeplechase champion Faith Cherotich, Commonwealth champion Jackline Chepkoech, 3000m champion Betty Chelangat and weightlifter Rachel Achieng.

“That was a big message to Kenyan basketball,” the power forward said, attributing to the attention the game was demanding, to the commitment shown by local coaches.

Thanking God as her top reason for success, Medina also took a moment to credit her high school coach, Phillip Onyango as one who shaped her career to where she is now.

“This success is down to coach Onyango,” Okot narrated. “He spotted me while I was playing in the volleyball nationals at Bishop Sulumeti (Lugari). I was in Form Two then, not necessarily a volleyball fan but good at it. It was then that coach Onyango approached me with the idea that my height would be special in basketball. That’s where we started.”

Making the switch to a basketball powerhouse - Kaya Tiwi Secondary School - to intense sessions of basketball basics was the initiation process that took years to her standing tall as one of the most exciting power forwards cum centers in Kenyan basketball.

Medina, a KBF Women’s Premier League champion with KPA, has also represented the team in regional tournaments including FIBA Africa Zone Five Championships (2021 winners and 2022 runners-up) and FIBA Africa Women’s Champions Cup where they finished sixth.

Teenage sensation Okot joins Zetech Sparks

Individually, the lanky star has represented Kenya in 3x3 basketball; featuring for the U23 side in Romania last year to being included in the Commonwealth Games team in Birmingham last summer.

Okot was also the only Kenyan to participate in the 18th edition of the Basketball Without Borders (BWB) camp in Cairo, Egypt.

“Tradition has it that winning the most promising award should at some point down the line turn into sportsperson of the year,” Okot mentioned, asked about what the award meant going forward into her young career. “More pressure on me to deliver and that starts this season. Helping my team win in the remainder of the season and to keep on working hard and stacking numbers is what I am looking at. Put them on notice.”

As confirmed this week, Okot will no longer be playing for Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) after completing a move to varsity side Zetech Sparks.

To her, a ‘rightful place to play basketball’, but an avenue to further her studies.

“I made a decision early this year to go back to class as I continue playing basketball,” Okot said, adding that she was already in session for a diploma course in Accounting and Finance in the school’s main campus.

Her first game in a Sparks uniform comes this weekend as her team plays former champions Equity Bank Hawks, where she hopes to kick start a new journey to more dominance.