Ahmedabad: The Kenyan men’s and women’s teams commenced their respective campaigns at the Commonwealth Kabaddi Championship 2026 with contrasting victories at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex here on Friday.
While the men’s team enjoyed a comprehensive 48-28 victory over Singapore, with James Kamweti leading the scoring charts with 19 points, the women’s team held their nerves to defeat Bangladesh 34-25 in a tightly contested match.
James was ably supported by Samuel Wafula and Stephen Adongo, who contributed eight and seven points respectively. Kenya led 28-11 at half-time. Strong defensive displays by Wafula and Allan Omondi were the cornerstone of Kenya’s performance.
The duo scored six tackle points between them, while Kaweti, Reuben Njuguna, Jeremiah Aungage, Ryan Neville Onynago, Hosea Muthee and Helvic Simuyuwanjala scored the other tackle points for Kenya, who outscored the East Asian 12-6 in tackle points.
Mohamed Aidil Mutalib and Aadit Senthilkumar led Singapore’s scoring with nine and six points, respectively. But they were unable to challenge Kenya on the raid front and were outscored 32-20 by their opponents.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan men outplayed Tanzania 48-21, with Milinda Chathuranga and Adhan Viduranga contributing 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the team’s victory. The island nation’s aggression helped them score 25 raid points compared to Tanzania’s nine points. Sri Lanka also outscored Tanzania 13-12 in tackle points, apart from inflicting three all-outs on their opponents. Tanzania was led by Juma Sultania with seven points.
In the day’s third contest, Scotland men thumped Australia 59-30. Scotland’s attacking approach yielded them 40 raid points. A strong defensive set-up also helped them bag eight tackle points, as Scotland inflicted four all-outs on Australia to run away with an easy victory. For Australia, Jasmeet Grewal scored eight points.
Ugandan women breezed past Singapore women 61-12 in a lopsided clash. At half-time, Uganda led 35-1.
Kenyan women were grateful to Lavenda Odhiambo, who scored a game-high 25 points. Kenya inflicted four all-outs on Bangladesh to prevail after a low-scoring first half was edged 12-7 by them. Kenya also outscored Bangladesh 26-21 in raid points.
For Bangladesh, Anzuara Ratry and Sraboni Mallick contributed seven points each, while Brishti Biswas scored five points. Despite narrowing the gap on several occasions, Bangladesh failed to land the ultimate killer punch.
On Saturday, the second day of the championship, Indian men play Uganda at 8.30 pm, while the women’s team will clash with Singapore at 6.45 pm.
–IANS–
