Onani Magwanga says he is ready to redeem his image at this year’s East, Central and Southern Africa Scrabble championships that will be staged in Nairobi next month.
The Homabay county-based player is part of the larger Word Warriors, the national team itching to extend Kenya's dominance of the tournament since inception.
After performing poorly in last year’s event held in Jinja, Uganda, Magwanga believes the Nairobi tournament offers a perfect opportunity to right the wrongs he experienced at last year's event in Jinja, Uganda.
25 players will be chasing individual and team titles.
“I don’t want to talk about last year’s ECASA tournament because I played so poorly that I did not want to see the results. I was not even in the top 20,” said Magwanga.
He revealed how he has been practicing and how the local tournaments will come in handy when the action goes down between April 7 and 10.
“We have had good tournaments across the country, which I believe will be key in my quest for the title," he said.
When qualifiers came to an end at the start of this month,
Magwanga finished 12th with 66 points during the Ecasa and World English Scrabble Players Association Championships qualifiers to earn himself a slot in the national team.
Kenya One Allan Oyende leads Team Kenya's charge at the championships.
He finished second at the opening qualifier in Nyahururu where Nderitu Gitonga won, went ahead to bag a hattrick of titles in Nairobi, Standard Chartered and Kitui before losing the final fifth qualifier in Bondo early this month.
Oyende won the Ecasa title in Jinja, the third title in a row. He bagged +1307 points followed by compatriot Francis Wachira (+886) as Ugandan Edgar Ondongkara completed the podium ahead of compatriot Richard Geria.
Nderitu was fifth ahead of Tobias Outi was (6), Martins Mutahi (8) and Stanley Njoroge.