Telkom focus on dethroning Ghanaians as USIU seek bronze

IN ABUJA, NIGERIA

Kenya’s representatives at this year’s Africa Hockey Club championships Telkom Kenya and USIU Spartans are in action on Saturday in the final and third-place play-off matches as the tournament comes to an end in Abuja, Nigeria.

Nine-time champions Telkom lost for the first time at the tournament on Thursday going down by a solitary goal to defending champions Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in their last match of the round robin format.

Nonetheless, they finished top of the table standings on 12 points and will take on GRA who finished second on 11 points in the gold medal match.

“I am glad we lost to GRA in the preliminaries, at least we can correct our mistakes for the final. The chances we lost and the mistakes our defenders made were the misgivings we had in this match. All the same, I am not too worried because we are already in the final,” noted Telkom coach Jos Openda. “In the last championship I lost in the final which was a crucial game. We are going to see how we are going to seal everything we can work on for the final.”

Coach Openda is seeking his sixth title at the helm of Telkom and will be banking on forwards Jackline Mwangi and Audrey Omaido who top the goal scorers chart with four goals each. The duo will be hoping to improve their goals tally as they battle for the top scorer gong.

USIU Spartans face Ghana Police in the battle for bronze after finishing fourth on four points. Ghana Police finished third on 10 points. The students will be hoping to build up from their first win of the tournament, a 2-1 win over Kada Queens of Nigeria.

“Finally the forwards were able to score and get a victory for the team when needed, so hopefully they will take that and all the positives to the bronze medal game,” said USIU Spartans team manager John Kabu.

“Of course the experience will be invaluable to the players and it being a growing team, we hope to replicate the good show back in the national league and even when we come back to the continental scene,” he added.

Ghana Revenue Authority men’s team will play defending champions Egyptians El Sharkia for the men’s title while Eastern Company from Egypt play Exchequers from Ghana for the bronze medal in the third place playoff.