Kenya Lionesses star Grace Adhiambo is hungry for more success after winning the LG/SJAK Sports Personality for the Month Award for November.
The fly-half from Kenya Cup side Nakuru steered the national 15-a-side team to win the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup Pool “B” which was held from October 25 to November 2.
The Lionesses mauled Zambia 36-17 and Uganda 23-3 at the Wankulukuku Stadium in Kampala to qualify for Rugby Africa Women’s Cup Group “A” next year. Adhiambo emerged the player-of-the-match against Uganda.
For her exemplary performance, Adhiambo took home the New LG Top Freezer worth Sh120,000.
“It is such an honour to be selected as the sports personality of the month. To be quite honest, I could not have thought of winning it especially after beating many individual sports athletes in the selection process. It is such a motivation to keep working hard,” said Adhiambo, who has been training at the Administration Police Training College since April this year.
Adhiambo’s link-up play in attack, defence and play-making was instrumental as the Dennis Mwanja-coached side sealed qualification to the Africa Cup Group “A” competition next year.
The Lionesses will face powerhouses South Africa, Madagascar and Cameroon who won pools “A”, “C” and “D” respectively. This competition will serve as a qualifier for the inaugural World Women 15s to be held later in 2023.
Olympian Adhiambo has been a key player of the Lionesses for the past three years, playing for the Sevens team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the World Rugby Sevens qualifying competition (Challenger Series) in Chile in August where Kenya finished fourth.
Adhiambo got the nod for the LG/SJAK award over New York marathon winners Sharon Lokedi and Evans Chebet, tennis ace Angella Okutoyi, who won the doubles category of the W15 Nairobi World Tennis Tour with her Indian partner Smriti Bhasin at the Karen Country Club and reached the finals in the singles category.
KCB utility forward Davis Chenge, who was named Most Valuable Player of the Impala Floodlit tournament, Moses Omondi of TrailBlazers Volleyball Club and rally driver Karan Patel who won the Kenya national motorsport championships title in November are the other nominees.
Speaking during the awarding ceremony at the RFUEA Grounds on Tuesday, LG’s content manager William Kamore lauded Adhiambo for her achievement while also praising the diversity the award portrays across all sporting disciplines.
“Since taking up this award as the title sponsor, we have awarded different sports personalities cutting across different sports such as volleyball, tennis, athletics, motorsport and now women’s rugby. This is a clear indication that this award really stands to award excellence as deserved. I am glad that today we have recognised one from rugby,” Kamore said.
