Kenya Ports Authority men and Kenya Pipeline women teams crowned winners of the KPC@50 volleyball extravaganza

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) men’s team and the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) women’s team are the winners of the KPC@50 Volleyball Extravaganza Tournament which ended at the Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani at the weekend.

KPA triumphed over Trailblazers in the men’s finals in a thrilling 3-0 match while KPC clinched their victory by defeating KCB Women with a similar margin.

In the retired national league players display matches, KPC legends won by two sets to nil against their rivals KCB while Kwathanze High School carried the day in the school’s category by overpowering Soweto Girls in a 3-sets win to one.

The winners of the tournament, KPA and KPC, walked away with Sh100,000 each while the runners-up, Trailblazers and KCB, bagged Sh75,000. The high school category winners took home a cash award of Sh15,000.00 while the runners-up received Sh10,000.

Speaking during the opening of the tournament on Friday 5th April, KPC Managing Director Joe Sang said the Company is committed to supporting the KPC women’s team as they prepare for the upcoming African Clubs Championship and urged other corporates to join hands and support sports activities in the country.

‘‘Kenya Pipeline Volleyball team has been in existence for over forty years and over the years, we have used sports to tell our story. The reason why we sponsor is because we want to support sports in our country. Sports bring people together, creating synergy and teamwork,’’ said Sang.

Speaking while handing the winners their trophies, Dinah Kirwa, KPC’s Human Resource and Administration General Manager underscored the company’s steadfast commitment to fostering sports and empowering youth.

She said, ‘‘Part of what we are doing is to nurture and inspire these young sportsmen and women into future players and we hope that most of them will join the national teams or become international professionals.’’

Also speaking during the tournament, Charles Nyaberi, Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) president, expressed his gratitude to the KPC for organizing and sponsoring the event and reiterated the need for more corporates to support volleyball talent in the country.

He said, ‘‘On behalf of KVF, I want to express our gratitude to KPC for coming forward and sponsoring this very colourful event”.

The three-day extravaganza featured 8 ladies’ teams and 12 men’s teams from the KVF National League, retired KPC and KCB players, and high school teams - Kwathanze and Soweto in the girls’ category and Hospital Hill and Ruthimitu Mixed (winners) in the boys’ category.

The tournament was held in honour of KPC’s 50th year anniversary. The Company sponsored the tournament to a tune of Sh 1.3 million.

The tournament was lauded as it comes a few days to the upcoming African Clubs Volleyball Championship which will be played in Egypt, where Kenya will be represented by Kenya Prisons, Equity Bank and KPA for the men’s teams while KPC, KCB, and Prisons Kenya will represent the women’s teams.