Cameroon coach tips Kenya for volleyball title
Cameroon coach Jean Rene Akono has described Kenya as by far the best team at the ongoing CAVB Women’s Africa Nations Championship at the Safaricom Indoor Arena.
Akono spoke moments after watching his team become the latest casualty of the Malkia Strikers’ ruthless display on the court on Wednesday evening.
David Lung’aho’s troops handed the West Africans a 3-0 (25-22, 25-14 and 25-22) thrashing in the match to advance to the final.
“We only trained for one week in readiness for this competition and as you can see that hasn’t been enough. They (Kenya) have comfortably beaten every team and I also see them winning against Algeria (in the final of this competition) as well,” Akono said.
Besides the Cameroon result, Kenya has also defeated Mauritius, Botswana and Algeria in the group stages of this competition without dropping a set.
UNBEATEN RECORD
These results have kept the National Oil sponsored Kenyan team on course to secure a record ninth continental title out of the 16 championships played.
“We have already beaten Algeria in this competition, the main job now is to maintain focus and minimize mistakes,” the team’s libero Elizabeth Wanyama added.
A second win over Algeria on Saturday evening will also assure Kenya of a spot at the FIVB World Cup in Japan come September.
The national women team remains unbeaten this year having also defeated Uganda, Burundi and Egypt in Kampala last April, to comfortably qualify for the All Africa Games set for the Republic of Congo later this year.
Meanwhile, Mauritius beat Botswana 3-1 (17-25, 25-21, 25-19, 25-21) to finish seventh in the competition.Botswana thus finishes in bottom place.
Losing semi-finalists Cameroon and Senegal will contest the third and fourth play-offs, while North African rivals Tunisia and Morroco are set to feature in positions five and six play-offs.