BY MANUEL ODENY

Africa betting giant, SportPesa has sponsored a Siaya skating club with Sh500,000 sponsorship under the the Tujiamini award.

Through the Sportpesa foundation, the sponsorship will enable the Bondo town based club acquire new training gears and other inputs to develop the sport in the area.

The sponsorship will help the club participate in the forthcoming East Africa games scheduled for Arusha, Tanzania later this year.

Debra Chepkirui Maina, an official from the foundation said sponsorship will help in nurturing young talents in rural Kenya.

“One thing that stands out is that the club is nurturing talent at very young age, talents that will in future raise the Kenyan flag high in international competitions” she said.

“We recognise that we have many community sporting clubs in the country, growing and nurturing talents in diverse sporting disciplines and who don’t often get a chance in the limelight. Our objective is therefore to encourage and reward such clubs not to give up but continue impacting lives positively through sports,” she added.

The club director, Dorcas Awuor hailed Sportpesa for the sponsorship, adding that since its inception in 2021, the club members have been forced to improvise whenever participating in events.

She said that skating equipment was too expensive for the ordinary sportsman, giving an example of the cheapest skate shoe which, she added, retails at an average of Sh50,000/- a pair.

The director said they are determined to demystify the myth that skating was a high-end, urban sport, adding that for the last four years, local children have proved that they can do better.