By S. Siapha Mulbah
South Eastern Liberia has emerged as the kingdom of sporting supremacy this season by winning all trophies of the National County Sports Meet. River Gee and Rivercess Counties emerged as champions in Football and Kickball respectively, in the tournament this year.
From the group stage of the competition in different zones, the two counties emerged at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville city standing strong against tougher sides to walk away with the trophies.
In football, River Gee County, for the first time yesterday, lifted the nation’s most watched competition’s trophy after winning the 2023/2024 grand final against Lofa County in a post-match penalty shoutout in a 4-1 scoreline, after drawing the match 2-2.
The football finalists played to a fulltime and extra time two-all draw with James Tarpeh finishing a brace for Lofa County, and a goal each from Blamo Weah and Jusu Dukuly for River Gee County.
The penalty shoutout had two shots missed by the Wologisi team, while the boys from Fishtown got all of their first four shots in the net to earn them their only trophy after losing their first ever final meeting to Bomi more than a decade ago.
After the kickball final, Cestos City had all reasons to celebrate Rivercess County’s fourth kickball trophy at the level of the National County Sports Meet after stubbornly facing and overcoming Nimba county in the grand final of the 2023/2024 edition of the competition.
At a tense and competitive match yesterday, staged at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville City, Rivercess County were declared champions over Nimba after an overly long match. Both teams settled to a one-all home run after eight different innings. They got into a penalty shout out for higher advance to break the tie.
It was again dramatic during the penalty shoutout with an entertaining and excellent kickball display from the two experienced teams. There were two innings witnessed with the players stopping at the same base.
It was in the third inning of the penalty shoutout that Rivercess broke the wings of Nimba by reaching the third base while their opponents were unable. Nimba slipped on getting the title and ended in second place for the year.
Lofa County also won the third-place kickball match last Saturday against Bomi County by four home runs to two at the same venue. Lofa went to the 2023/2024 National County Sports Meet as defending champions of the kickball category.
