Ulinzi stun champions Rwanda Police to clinch regional title

Ulinzi stunned defending champions Rwanda Police 43-41 to claim the 2016 title. Trailing by a point, the Military Men needed to win their fixture against their Rwandese opponents to have any chance of winning the title and they never looked like cracking under the pressure.

Instead, they raided the visitors right the start and took a deserved 24-17 lead before the break with Frank Kiplagat (12 points), Musa Munyasia (7) and Felix Kareithi(5) their stars of the first of the first half show.

However, they started their second half poorly as Rwanda raced back to cut the deficit to just four points with strikes from Ian Mukunzi and Tim Zacharie.

Ulinzi soon regained control of the proceedings and were up 35-20 moments later but the visitors responded with four more strikes to take the tie to 35-28.

The contest got tighter in the dying minutes of the tie, with Rwanda Police battling hard to defend their crown but it was too late as Ulinzi held tight to win with the slightest of margins.

In their last fixture, champions Nairobi Water fought to a 32-28 win over Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) to finish their tournament on a high as the championship came to an end on Saturday.

They finish the tournament having won all their three fixtures, with KDF and Nairobi Cereals and produce Board (NCPB) having won one each. Sparklers HC – 32-21 losers to NCPB on Friday – end their campaign rock-bottom with zero points.

-Report by Richard Obaga.