Brenda Chebet from Baringo County and Brian Kipruto from Nandi County are the Rift Valley region primary school athletics champions.
At the same time, Nandi County performed the best among the 14 counties in the region after scoring 222 points. Trans Nzoia and Elgeyo Marakwet counties emerged second and third with 194 and 154 points respectively.
In the boys’ category, Nandi County led with 97 points, Narok County came second with 95 points while Elgeyo Marakwet came third with 94 points.
While in the girls’ set, Nandi County scored 121 points, Trans Nzoia County emerged second with 94 points while Baringo County came third with 89 points.
The games held at William Ole Ntimama stadium in Narok saw some 1,200 pupils participate in the various disciplines exhibited in the three-day competition.
The Rift Valley Region Primary School Athletics Chairman Peter Sang said the games have not been held since the onset of Covid-19 saying it was a good comeback as all the counties were represented.
However, he lamented lack of funding from the Ministry of Education saying the various school principals were forced to cater for the cost of their individual participants unlike in the previous years.
“You will be shocked by the little money we have used in these games this year. That is why we reduced the days to only three days as we could not afford to keep our children for a longer period,” he said.
He lauded the participants for exhibiting a high level of discipline during the competitions saying there was no major incident reported.
Sang challenged those who lost not to give up but instead continue practicing to do better in coming years.
Among the disciplines featured included; long jump, 100 metre sprint, 4 by 4 sprint, 200 metre sprint, 800 metres, 1,800 metres, 110 sprint huddles, mixed race sprints and the steeplechase.
The National games will be held in the same venue as from Monday April 24th, 2023.
By Ann Salaton
