Funyula-based school wins basketball title to crown tough week
Yusuf Masibo and Alex Njue
Sigalame High School, the 2018 national secondary school games boys’ basketball runners-up, retained their Busia County title in an emphatic fashion after crushing Butula 124-32 in the final held at St Mathias Boys High School at the weekend.
Victory came amid low spirits from the institution after one of their players succumbed to his injuries following a collision in a rugby 15s match against Nambale High School at the same venue on Friday.
Eliakim Olima Oundo passed on while undergoing treatment at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret following a devastating collision that left him with head and neck injuries that caused internal bleeding and an eventual blood clot, leading to his demise.
The incident happened during Friday’s third-place playoff match against Nambale.
“Nambale arrived late for the final and were dropped into the third place playoff against us. Their players demonstrated frustration and anger before and during the match following that decision.
It was very unfortunate that one of our own sustained fatal head and neck injuries,” said Sigalame coach Grado Mabachi.
Oblivious of what had befallen their rugby colleague, Sigalame’s basketball team, popularly known as the Titans , displayed top form to beat Butula with John Maker notching 22 points.
The team had beaten Mundika 97-30, Kolanya 93-21 before hammering St Benedict’s Budalangi 164-23 in the semi finals.
Sigalame principal Peter Auma said 2020 is the year they want to stamp authority in the school games by winning the national and East Africa titles.
They will, however, have to triumph at the western region event first when the games resume at Musingu High School.
The games had been scheduled to take place this week but have been suspended indefinitely following the government’s directive in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sigalame’s dream of adding the rugby sevens title to their cabinet proved futile, however, as they lost to Butula Hurricanes who beat them 15-0 with tries from Most Valuable Player Gregory Oundo, Ramadhan Otieno and Sydney Musalia.
The rugby 15s crown went to Kolanya Boys who beat Butula 17-3 before claiming the hockey title after a 2-0 victory over St Mary’s Mundika.
In the girls’ category, Aboloi were crowned new handball champions after beating St Joseph Chakol 23-25 as Bumala AC won the basketball crown following a 74-10 win over defending champions Kolanya.
