Overall winner Evanson Muigai will represent Kenya at the international bridge competition to be held in July in Beijing. Muigai first participated in the competition in 2017, although he didn't perform well.

"I got an opportunity to attend summer camp in China and fell in love with the country's development, environment, culture and I made a decision to study there," he said.

He last year secured a scholarship from Hanban, Confucius Institute headquarters, and was able to study the language in Beijing for five months.

Muigai has studied Mandarin for the last three years, and he said that he will continue to practice with the help of his teachers and hopefully put in a strong performance in Beijing.

"The pressure is on, knowing that I will compete with the best students from other countries, but I have the confidence to perform well," he said.

Faith Wanjiku, one of the competition's runners up, said she was overwhelmed participating in the competition for the first time.

"I'm so happy. In the morning I had no TV but now I have one, along with a bluetooth speaker. If I can achieve this after six months' training, I'm confident to achieve a lot by next year," she said.

Wanjiku last year joined the Confucius Institute in Kenyatta University, after graduating with a degree in international relations from the Technical University of Kenya.

She has just completed her HSK 3 exam and plans to continue learning Mandarin so she can pass HSK 6: "I want to increase my level of understanding and improve my spoken Mandarin," she said.

Wanjiku said perfecting Mandarin will increase her marketability in the job market, because she sees herself working with a Chinese company.