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Kenya: Meet the 10-Year Old Who Wants to Become the First Ever Woman Safari Rally Winner

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4 years ago

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Nairobi — Pauline Sheghu and lately Maxine Wahome are some of the few women to have competed and completed the grueling Safari Rally, which since last year has been part of the WRC circuit.

And now, a 10-year old girl, champion in autocross, wants to achieve that feat, and, above all, go one better by becoming the first woman to win the Safari Rally.

Kiana Rajput who started practicing racing at the tender age of five, says she wants to achieve that feat when she gets to rallying age and before then, will put in the hard work to improve her craft.

Rajput was the darlin of the crowd in her Maji Buggie at the first ever all women Lionesses Rallying Club Championship at the Kasarani SSS track on Sunday where she clocked a cumulative time of 28mins, 58.6secs.

She says competing at the Rally has injected confidence in her, that she can achieve a successful career in rallying.

“When I grow up, definitely, I want to become a WRC driver and compete in the Safari Rally… maybe in the Formula One too some day. I was a champion at Go Karting and so I believe that I can be a champion in the rally too,”Kiana told Capital Sport.

“I believe I can be the first woman winner of the WRC Safari Rally,” she added, with a punch of confidence in her voice.

Sunday was the first time that Kiana, navigated by her close friend Ishy Renu, was doing a rally circuit, and she says it was absolutely motivating for her.

“I was very nervous at the beginning but I knew I could do it. It was a lot of fun because I had never done a rally. It was interesting; nerve wrecking at the beginning but once I got the hang of it, it was a lot of fun,” she stated.

She adds; “It was interesting doing the notes and stuff. I learnt how to do and ready notes on the road. I hadn’t done that ever before.”

“It motivated me a lot because it has shown me and told me that I could do a lot of things that I have never done before,” she adds.

Her close friend Renu, a rally and autocross photographer by profession was jumping into a competitive race for the very first time ever.

“It was really interesting because I had never done this before but we got to learn on the job of course with a lot of practice before. I was really glad to be there and doing this with Kiana. We definitely had a lot of fun,” said the 26-year old.

“Kiana is an amazing driver and I definitely know she will make a huge amazing driver one day. Already at 10 years she is doing amazing for herself and this shows the potential she has,” she added.