NAIROBI, Kenya, March 20 – Kenya Prisons recovered from a shaky start in the ongoing men’s African Club Championship to register a first win against Police of Benin 3-0 (25-13, 25-9, 25-23 in the second match of pool D on Monday.
The lone Kenyan representatives in Tunisia came from three sets (25-16,25-16,25-17) defeat in their opening match last week against the hosts Etoile du Sahel to take their win-loss ratio to 1:1following today’s win.
The reigning national champions came out in their riot gears when they humbled their fellow officers from Benin to revive their chances of progressing to the next stage.
Gideon Chenje’s men put on their best performance in the opening two sets which they easily won in under 15 and despite Benin Police effort to stage a comeback in the final set, Prisons locked up the fellow officers with a slim 25-23 to register a maiden win this campaign.
The win still puts them up in contention for the African title and a guaranteed trip to the World stage should they lift their first continental gong this year.
Prisons must now win their last group D match against Espoir and hope that Sahel beat Police by straight sets in the last match for them to sail through to the quarters.
Tunisian giants, Etoile du Sahel are top of the table with six points thanks to their second triumph against Espoir of Ivory Coast. Sahel had beaten Espoir 3-0 (25-14, 25-14, 25-15) to take total control of the group. Prisons other match is against the west African Espoir on Tuesday.
In other matches of the day, Rwandan side University of Kibungo needed two hours to overcome a set deficit in their 3-2 (15-25,2521,27-29,2516,15-8) win against Douanes from Burkina Faso in pool C.
The University side which has a Kenyan, Abiud Kipkirui who joined the side a month to these games, twice came from a set down to register a first win by a Rwandan club in the games.
-By Elvince Joshua-