Rosealine Muigai, a table tennis champion from Kenya, stopped competing five years ago only to comeback and win two tournaments and proving that practice does not necessarily make perfect.

Muigai?s first tournament since she started attending Sac State was the 2001 National Collegiate Championship in Table Tennis Mixed Doubles at the ACU-I Tournament held in Baltimore. Muigai, who worked with fellow table tennis player, Kurt Lui, won this championship.

“It was a great feeling [when I won the championship],” said Muigai, “Since I did not really train for it, I was glad to win anything at all!”

Muigai was born in 1977 and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. She started playing table tennis at home with her two older brothers on her dining table and found it a fun game.”It was just for fun,” Muigai said of using her mother’s furniture for a sporting event. Eventually, she grew to practice the sport 15 hours a week and winning the national championship two years in a row while she was in high school. She represented Kenya in the All African Games in 1995 in Zimbabwe. Muigai was also on the table tennis national team for Kenya for two years.

In August of1996, Muigai moved to Illinois to pursue her studies. The winters were too cold for her and she then moved to Sacramento in 1997. The move from the midwest wasn’t easy for Muigai, either.

“Moving here had its ups and downs,” said Muigai. “Back home I never had to worry about finances, but here it?s different?I have become much more independent being out here on my own.”

At Sacramento State, Muigai is majoring in computer engineering. When she first came to Sac State, she did not know where to practice her skills. Even now that she knows that there is a table tennis club to practice with, she admits that she does not have enough time to practice because her school schedule is very demanding.

“I’m only taking 14 units and they are pretty hard classes,” she said. “Plus, I work nights at Apple Computers.”

Nevertheless, Muigai did win two table tennis championships this year.

Muigai won the Women?s Singles Division at the ACU-I Region 15 Tournament at Sac State which, she said, gave her a bittersweet feeling. Since many women didn?t show up for the championship, she played with men.

“Don?t get me wrong,” said Muigai. “I did hold my own against the guys, I just wish more women took up the sport.”

Muigai is 24 years old now and has won eight title tournaments. Although she is a very acclaimed table tennis player, she has decided to not make it her profession as she continues to study computer science.