Kenyan teams throw down challenge to region’s best schools
Saint John’s Girls Kaloleni football team train in Mombasa prior to their departure for Dar es Salaam on August 22 for the East Africa Secondary School Games. PHOTO | ABDULRAHMAN SHERIFF |
What you need to know:
- All the teams for the regional schools’ sporting fete had checked into Dar es Salaam by Saturday.
- Most of the teams interviewed said they were happy with the Dar es Salaam weather that was ideal for outdoor sports.
DAR ES SALAAM
Kenyan teams were on Saturday beaming with confidence ahead of the start of the Brookside East Africa Secondary School Games at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.
A strong Kenyan contingent of 643 athletes arrived in Dar es Salaam by road on Friday evening after two overnight stop-overs in Kajiado and Arusha.
Mohammed Mwinyipembe, Kenya’s Director of Quality Assurance and Standards at the Education ministry had a meeting with the Kenyan teams at the Dar es Salaam University of Education, where the girls teams have been accommodated, and urged them to tackle without fear the strong opposition from the hosts Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.
All the teams for the regional schools’ sporting fete had checked into Dar es Salaam by Saturday. Only South Sudan, who have strong basketball and football sides, had not arrived by late Saturday.
The organisers were due to meet on Saturday evening to confirm the games’ full fixtures including the opening matches on Sunday morning.
SET FOR BATTLE
Most of the teams interviewed said they were happy with the Dar es Salaam weather that was ideal for outdoor sports.
Kwanthanze Secondary School coach Justin Kigwari, whose girls volleyball team will be seeking to defend the regional title they won last year in Lira, Uganda, said they were set for battle and predicted an all-Kenya girls final.
“We are here to compete and believe all the teams that have come here did so on merit so we will take every game as it comes,” Kigwari said during their morning training session at Dar es Salaam University of Education.
Kigwari said he will rely heavily on the six players who did duty for the Kenya Under-18 girls volleyball team in Gaborone, Botswana winning a silver medal behind eventual winners Egypt.
They include Celdine Akinyi, Ann Lowem, Everlyne Nzilani, Teresa Akai, Yvonne KIitha, Milka Kimwele and Lilian Leilei. Also beaming with confidence was Kisumu Day football coach Dan Otieno who said his boys had come of age and should be able to tackle any opposition.
Otieno said Kisumu Day might be participating at these regional games for the first time but this will not show once his boys stepped on the field.
“Yes this is practically the first time we are participating at the regional games but I have a bunch of players who have been tried and tested and should be able to give any team a run for their money,” he said in reference to his hawk-eyed goalkeeper, the Brazil-trained Gad Mathew, defenders Victor Dianga and Hesbon Oyando, and attackers Ebron Aila and Mbarak Mohammed.
In hockey, surprise package Narok Boys High, who shocked former champions Friends School Kamusinga, will be looking to add the regional crown to their trophy cabinet.
