Nakuru have attributed their victory in the just concluded Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) Masters tournament to team spirit and strong defence.

Nakuru scooped the title after defeating Kisumu 1-0 in the first series of the competition, which took place at Kisumu Day School over the weekend. 

Captain Andrew Jen Louis said: "Our defence was solid throughout the game and we didn't concede during the whole competition. If one person makes a mistake we covered each other and that is what team spirit is all about."

He added that his players will step up training prior to the second series in Nairobi on June 3 -4.

"Our goal now is to prepare for the next series. We must continue training because, at our age, it is not easy to keep on playing. Keeping the players committed is very important," said Jean Louis.

The skipper said he wishes more slots could be allocated to the ladies in the team.

"We are only allowed to have three ladies in the team and if one of them gets injured, we don’t have a substitute which means we play with ten players. I wish we had more ladies in the tournament so that we don’t have those problems," he concluded.

Shakeel Shabir, the MP for Kisumu East, promised to push the Ministry of Sports for an astroturf ground so that Kisumu City may once again be a hockey powerhouse.

Moses Majiwa, the Kenya Hockey Union's (KHU) deputy match and fixtures secretary, stated that many players who were dedicated to improving the sport attended the competition.

"The competition was quite smooth; there was a high commitment from players and teams to advance the sport. We saw many players joining the teams that participated and this is in line with our objective of getting as many masters players as possible involved," he said.

Majiwa also applauded the ladies who impressed in the competition, citing Judy Owino, who was the top scorer in the ladies' category.

Kisumu took second place with Blue Ocean third. Impala and Wazalendo Veterans completed the top five places.