Barcelona Starlets, LYSA Retain Laikipia Chapa Dimba Crowns

Barcelona Rising Starlets maintained their brilliant form in the girls' category as they beat Nanyuki Starlets 1-0, to claim the county title for the fifth time in the fifth edition of the tournament.

The tight finish was the result of a competitive match-up where Barcelona pushed hard to hold on to their winning streak, but also had a few chances.

The feat was made more special because the team had a big turnover in the team after the age requirement changes for the tournament head coach Emman Wafula Gullit said.

This will be the fifth time we have been able to win the county title. Although it wasn’t easy, we managed to pull through despite missing several chances,” Gullit said.

He said that a lot of the players in the current squad had never played at that level before as a competitive player.

This is a new team, and most of the players have never been around in a tournament before, he said.

The alteration in the age limit for the Chapa Dimba team meant he had to quickly form a team that could maintain Barcelona Rising Starlets' winning streak in the competition, Gullit replied.

The coach admitted that a tougher test will be given in the Central Regional Finals, but said he was confident his players will be ready for it.

The Laikipia Youth Soccer Academy also held their county title in the boys' final after a tight match with Ilpolei Giants.

They failed to score a goal during the 45 minutes of regulation, and thus forced the game into the penalty box.

They would go up 6-5 in the shootout to take down the champions and advance to the next round of the tournament, which eventually became LYSA.

The two teams from Laikipia now have great numbers of teams who have secured places in the Central Regional Finals.

For the girls, Barcelona Rising Starlets will be accompanied by Thriving Queens from Kiambu, Kerugoya Sportiff from Kirinyaga, St. Joseph Starlets from Murang'a and Karatina Home Queens from Nyeri.

LYSA, MASFO, Kirinyaga Secondary School, CDM Emmanuel FC and Giakairu FC are the regional field representatives for the boys.

The Central Regional Finals will take place on Saturday, August 29 and Sunday, August 30 at Wang'uru Stadium in Kirinyaga County.

The two Laikipia county winners got prizes of Ksh 75,000 and the chance to compete in the regional grades.

There were also awards for individual performers in the county finals.

The Best Goalkeeper and Most Valuable Player and Top Scorer awards were each worth KSh 10,000.

The tournament was complemented with a further incentive of fully-funded tertiary education scholarships as part of Safaricom's Citizens of the Future initiative for the tournament's MVPs.

With the recent win, Barcelona Rising Starlets have continued their impressive county level run and with LYSA's successful title defence, Laikipia will be represented by familiar champions when the competition takes to the next level.