17-year-old Jacinta Njeri wins the overall junior category at the Nakuru Women's Open
Njeri makes a swing during the Nakuru ladies opens held at the Nakuru golf club on september 28,2024.
When she swings her club at Nakuru Golf Club during the womens open, her goal is to win. Her effort and discipline as a junior player and a person with dissability competing alongside adults on the course was admirable.
It's in this silence that Jacinta Njeri, a deaf athlete, won the overall junior category at the Nakuru Women's Open tournament.
With the help of her teacher, Hellen Atieno, we talk about Njeri's victory and what the 18-hole golf challenge was like for her.
The 17-year-old starts of by acknowledging the good weather that she says was great for golf. For her it was an honour to be playing as a junior and to be competing alongside great sportswomen on the course.
Apart from getting good results at the end of the tournament, she made the most of learning from the two ladies she played against.
Njeri makes a swing during the Nakuru ladies opens held at the Nakuru golf club on september 28,2024.
"It's not every day you get the opportunity to play alongside elite players and win as a junior. It was a moment I soaked up when they presented me with my award. I saw that there was a place for me in the international golf arena, which I would love to pursue," she signed as her teacher translated.
Speaking about her future plans in golf, Njeri hopes to get sponsorship to take her golf career to the next level. She notes that she wants to play for Kenya and grace international matches.
The Form One pupil scored 59 points to seal her victory against two other junior players in the tournament.
Ms Atieno notes that Njeri has improved a lot in the three years since she took up the sport in 2022, attributing her win to her previous exposure to the course, which made her step into the competition with confidence.
Jecinta Njeri (right) and her teacher Hellen Atieno during the Nakuru ladies opens . Ms Atieno guides Njeri during the tournament and helps her with translation between her and other hearing players.
"I saw her play with confidence without showing any timidity. Her ability to pick up on the lessons she learnt on the course and implement them as the match progressed greatly boosted her score," says Ms Atieno.
Celebrating her win, she notes that the language barrier between Njeri and her caddie on the course can sometimes be a disadvantage. She notes that a caddie may notice a mistake while she is playing, but then it becomes difficult for him to correct her because of the language barrier.
Pointing to her strengths, she notes that as an athlete, Njeri is good at picking up on natural cues, especially from her opponents, and using them to her advantage.
"Njeri has an advantage when it comes to signing. As I work with her on the course, I can quietly correct her without sharing her mistakes with her opponents, which gives her an advantage on the course. I'm happy to see her excelling in the sport and we can't wait to see what the future holds for her," she says