Winning start for Ulinzi and GSU in men's Handball league

Ulinzi Handball Club were victorious in their opening men's league match as they saw off varsity side Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) 39-22 in a game of two halves. 

In a closely contested 20 minutes of the first half, the students had managed to hold the soldiers for a decent two-goal different at 11-9. 

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The students' endurance was, however, put to test in the last ten minutes of the first period as Ulinzi pulled away for a seven-goal advantage at 20-13 heading to the breather. 

"This was our first match if the season and we are happy for this victory. Our endurance won us the match as we relied mostly on fast breaks to build a lead and in the second half for the win. 

However, our defence was niy up to par. We need to work on that going into the next match. Compared to how we started our season last year, we had a better match, are better prepared and I feel we can challenge teams more than we did last session," said Ulinzi's skipper Noah Cheruiyot. 

Isaac Kololi did alot of damage to the students, scoring seven goals while Kellion Otieno added four for the soldiers. Cheruiyot, Christopher Mureithi and Gideon Kiprotich scored three each in the win. 

George Ogonda emerged the top scorer in the match with eight goals for the students but watched painfully as his efforts went down the drain. Lewis Maraga scored five for the students while Derrick Mwathi and Jack Mumo added three each. 

"We had trained on a few moves that helped us play a close game in the first half but with a lean squad, as we have a few injured players and other who are unavailable, it was hard to maintain the tempo for the entire match. We, however, need to work on endurance and concentration too," offered JKUAT's captain Mark Kihanya who had to sit part of the match out for a red card having collected three two-minute violations. 

Meanwhile, General Service Unit (GSU) opened the season with a clash against another e side Technical University of Kenya (TUK), winning 36-26. 

GSU's Christopher Mayende and TUK's Brian Werengai top scored for either side at 11 and eight goals respectively in a match that saw the soldiers lead 20-11 at half time.