After winning the opening leg of the Scrabble Kenya Championships, Patrick Gitonga is now looking forward to next month's Scrabble on the Nile in Jinja, Uganda.
Over the weekend, Gitonga ruled the Scrabble Kenya Nyahururu leg after winning 16 of his 18 matches to relegate top seed Allan Oyende to second while federation chairman Bernard Amuke completed the podium.
“The win in Nyahuruu has opened many doors for me and come next month, I want to play in Jinja as I seek to boost my confidence on the board,” said Gitonga.
He said Nyahururu was part of his preparations for the World English-Language Scrabble Players' Association (WESPAC) in Las Vegas and East, Central and Southern Africa (ECASA) championships in Nairobi.
He observed that there are no scrabble facilities in his home county of Kirinyaga and he therefore needs to follow the tournaments wherever they are.
“For me to qualify for WESPAC or ECASA, I have to play in many tournaments both in the country and at the regional level to sharpen my skills,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gitonga was impressed with the turn-out in Nyahururu, especially by the women.
“I saw a large number of women competing meaning we have grown in the sport. I think it was the first time we had such a big number of women participants since the game was introduced in Kenya in 1990,” he said, whose losses were against Amuke and Michael Gongolo.
“It was also a well-organised tournament and going by the large number of participants, I can say we are heading in the right direction."
Amuke observed: “We want to send a strong team to WESPAC and ECASA. We want to take our Ecasa form to the world stage."
