Goal-hungry Opondo fires Lakers past Amira, Jaguars maul Sharks

Dependable Lakers forward Aurelia Opondo is targeting the top scorer's award when the Kenya Hockey Union women's Premier League comes to end later in the year.

Opondo, 23, was on target as Lakers defeated Amira Sailors 2-0 at the Kisumu Day Secondary School, Kisumu County on Saturday.

Opondo boasts of four goals from five matches and is joint third with Naomi Kemunto of United States International University-Africa.

Gilly Okumu of Amira and Maureen Okumu of Blazers lead the top scorer's chart with six goals each from six matches.

Opondo, who missed out on the final squad for Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year, is confident of finally making a cut ahead the Olympic Games qualifiers in South Africa in October.

"I have come  of age now and I'm ready to fight for a place in the national team. I have scored four goals in five matches and that's a good place to start at. That shows I have the capability of banging in more goals and I will not stop at anything. I'm targeting to score 10 more goals and hopefully I will be the top scorer," said Opondo, a former Itigo Girls High School player.

"Tomorrow we will play Dutch Flower Group (DFG) Wolverines and I believe the match will offer me a chance to score more goals. We are unbeaten in the league with two matches remaining to the end of the first leg and we can only hope for a better ending," she added.

"The national team training sessions at the City Park Hockey Stadium has been amazing and I'm really learning a lot."

Lakers will play the University of Nairobi in their rescheduled match in a later date.

Captain Alice Owiti scored the other goal in seventh minute.

Opondo sounded the boards for the hosts in the 58th minute.

The result saw Lakers hand Amira their first loss of the season from six matches and were relegated to fourth position with nine points from six matches.

Lakers moved second on the standings with 11 points from five matches four points behind leaders Blazers who were not in action this weekend.

Lakers play  Wolverines on Sunday at the same venue.

A win for Lakers will move them one point behind Blazers from the same number of matches.

In the men's KHU Premier League match played at the Eregi Teachers College, Willis Malesi (16th) Oscar Kibet(24th) and Emmanuel Wiswa were on target as Western Jaguars routed Greensharks 3-0.

Meanwhile, Wazalendo Hockey Club from Nairobi got off to a good start in Mombasa County Hockey Association (MCHA) national five-a-side tournament, beating Nairobi Sikh Union 4-2 and Changamwe Finest Under-20 team 7-1 before drawing 0-0 with Mombasa’s Black Knights in Pool ‘B’’.

Maldavians HC of Mombasa also beat Mombasa Black Nights and Changamwe Finest 3-2 and 4-1 respectively.

In other matches of Zone ‘B’, Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) beat Changamwe Finest 3-2 but lost 4-0 to Sikh Union, who also Black Knights 2-0.

In Pool ‘A’, Simah Diaspora and Marines from Mombasa and Nairobi’s Deep State each raced to six points after winning two matches. Simah Diasporah beat Airforce Blues 2-0 and Parklands 6-3 but lost 2-1 to Marines, who also beat Airforce Blued 2-0.

Deep State won 5-3 and 4-0 against Marines and Warrior XI respectively.