Munyao Crowned ACT North Event Three Champion In Nakuru

Bu Our Correspondent

Dominic Munyao beat fellow Kenyan Charles Njuguna 8-2 on Sunday to win African Continental Tour North Event Three at Jacaranda Showground in Nakuru, claiming his first title of the 2026 series.

Munyao averaged 75.23 in the best-of-15-leg final, while Njuguna posted 71.33, as Munyao completed a five-match run to the title. The result ended Peter Wachiuri’s hold on the North and East Africa tour after wins in the opening events in Nairobi and Mombasa.

Njuguna recorded the highest points-per-round average among the four semi-finalists with 74.78. Munyao finished with 68.85, Benson Ngari with 74.59, and Uganda’s Isaac Passi with 71.86.

Munyao reached the final with the biggest comeback of the tournament. He trailed Ngari 4-1 in their semi-final, then won the next six legs to seal a 7-4 victory.

Ngari had taken control with a 15-dart leg and a 102 checkout during a four-leg burst. Munyao ended that run in the sixth leg, drew level at 4-4, then took the last three. He hit the match’s only 180, produced a 14-dart leg in the 10th, and closed it out in 21 darts.

Ngari had the slightly better semi-final average, 74.70 to Munyao’s 74.04, but did not win another leg after moving into the early lead. The match lasted 43 minutes.

Njuguna had a more straightforward path in the other semi-final, beating Passi 7-2 after the Ugandan had led 2-1. Njuguna took the last six legs and averaged 77.96, compared with Passi’s 66.61.

His run included a 15-dart fifth leg and a 13-dart eighth, the quickest leg of the match. Njuguna wrapped up the win in 19 darts in the ninth leg after scoring 4,392 points from 169 darts. Passi scored 3,797 from 171.

The defeat was Passi’s second exit of the Nakuru weekend. Patrick Ocheng beat him 6-0 in the last 16 of the separate ADC Africa Global Championship qualifier, despite Passi averaging 74.73. Ocheng then edged Njuguna 6-5 in the quarter-finals and beat Wachiuri 8-5 in the final to qualify for November’s ADC Global Championship in Portsmouth, England. Ocheng averaged 73.82 in the qualifier final.

Uganda also took the women’s title through Sarah Makanga, the country’s top-seeded female player and a two-time African champion. Makanga won Women’s Series North Event Three after entering the weekend in the amateur, women’s and continental competitions.

Munyao’s win makes him the second men’s champion of the 2026 North and East Africa series. Wachiuri won Event One in Nairobi by beating Ngari 8-5 with a 75.71 final average. He followed that with an 8-3 win over Pascal Wamalwa Wanjala in Mombasa, where he averaged 91.88.

The Nakuru competition was part of a three-day darts programme from July 24 to 26 with a KSh450,000 prize pool. The tour is part of the African Darts Group circuit affiliated with the Professional Darts Corporation, and the results count toward the regional standings.

The PDC announced a three-year investment of more than KSh517.83 million in its global affiliate tours in December 2025. Under its agreement with the African Darts Group, the African Continental Tour has six KSh387,030 events in each of its northern and southern regions. Africa also has two World Championship qualifying places for the 2026-27 tournament, one through each region.

The expanded circuit comes as organised darts continues to grow in Kenya. Sirua Darts runs a 12-week league with 20 teams and about 300 players, while a separate Match Play tournament in Nakuru drew 161 competitors in May. That growth followed David Munyua’s qualification for the 2026 PDC World Championship and his first-round win over former World Grand Prix champion Mike De Decker.

African Continental Tour North Event Four is scheduled for September 19 and 20 in Mombasa.