Former league champions Kenya Police are the Kenya Open Championships champions.

They won the four-day competition with a total of 21 points ahead of the league champions Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) who posted 16 points.

Kenya Prisons finished third with 11 points ahead of Nairobi on seven, Siaya and Kibra tied at three points and Kisumu, Kongowea and Nakuru tied at two points each.

And in the Kenya Open Female Championships, KDF made a comeback to see their ladies win it with seven points after overcoming stiff competition from resurgent Siaya who came second with six points.

The policewomen and Kibra tied on third spot with three points apiece while Kisumu, Nairobi and Meru tied with two points each.

And by the policemen winning the Kenya Open title, it has revived the long term rivalry that has existed between the two teams from disciplined forces for two decades that made the league championships competitive and interesting.

On their way for the policemen and women to finish at respectable positions, they had nine boxers in the finals but eight of them won their bouts to catapult them to the title.

The rivalry between Police and KDF is expected to extend to the National Boxing League, which starts with the first leg in Busia on May 15-17.

Kenya Prisons has also made a formidable comeback following their elections last week.

Secretary General Edward Mwaura said they only need to recruit more players in order to compete effectively with the rest.

“Elections are over and what we need to do now is to recruit more boxers into our camp to boost the current squad so that we can compete effectively and give other teams in the league championships a run for their money,” Mwaura said.

The same event was being used by national coaches led by Musa Benjamin and assistant coaches David Munuhe and John Waweru to assess boxers who could be selected into the Hit Squad that will feature in the World Men Boxing Championships in June.