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Malkia Strikers during a training session in Japan before the Olympic Games

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Improved Malkia pick positives from Japan match, stay focused on Olympics 

TOKYO, Japan, Jul 26 – The national women’s volleyball team has made great strides going by their encouraging performance against hosts Japan in their opening Olympic Games match at the newly built Ariake Arena in Tokyo on Sunday.

Though the team lost by three straight sets (25-15, 25-11, 25-23), it was a spirited fight for the nine-time African champions, who gave two-time Olympic champions Japan a run for their money especially in the last set, which they almost won.

The team led by skipper Mercy Moim drew a lot of positives from the game especially their improvement on reception, an aspect of their game that has been a hard nut to crack for a long period.

And this is thanks to the input brought in by the experienced Brazilian coaching staff led by head coach De Moura Luizomar, assisted by Jefferson Arosti, Strength and Conditioning trainer Marcelo Vitorino and Team Manager Roberto Opice Neto who were seconded to Kenya by the world volleyball governing body FIVB to help Kenyan Paul Bitok.

“The technical team from Brazil has helped us a lot. We were poor in reception but looking at how we played against Japan there is a lot of improvement. We even made them panic especially in the last set,” Kenyan top setter Jane Wacu, who had a great game said.

-Should have done better-

Upcoming talented opposite hitter Sharon Chepchumba was one of the stand-out players in the match, though she feels she should have gone hard right from the opening set.

“Against Japan we did not do well, it was our undoing. I wish I had gone all attack from the start. We also had some bad serves that cost us. I squandered a couple, but all is not lost because we have three more matches to play,” Chumba said.

The African Queens next plays the Dominican Republic on Tuesday night at the Ariake Arena with both sides having lost their opener. However, Wacu believes it will bot be easy and called on her team-mates to stay calm.

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“The Dominican Republic have good service. We have never beaten them; we have never even gone past 10 points when we face them, but we shall give it our best,” Wacu, who is one of the most experienced players in the team revealed.

Meanwhile, Bitok was full of praise for his girls but said they need to be composed and now focus on the remaining matches in Pool A where they will also take on Brazil and Serbia.

Kenya has never won a set in the Olympics, World Cup or at the Grand Prix.

“I want to say sorry for not winning in our first game. We had a good chance to win the third set, Japan were not that strong, they are beatable. The last time we played Japan in the World Cup we managed to get a scoreline of 19-25 but we have done well to reach 23-25,” Bitok said.

He added, “We started the match well by scoring. I had faith that we will surprise Japan, but in the middle, we lost the focus. The players concentrated too much on the Japan game and we forgot ourselves.”

“But when we came in for the third set, I told the players to just enjoy the game not focus on the result and you saw they came back strongly,” further added the coach.

Poor finishing-

He added; “Our finishing was poor. We are getting the service right, but we just needed someone to receive for us and Chumba to finish the match. But nevertheless, we did well bearing in mind that we have not played any friendly match since we qualified. This first match was an eye opener to the coaches to see our weakness.”

Bitok hinted that the future looks bright for Malkia Strikers with the help of young talented players like Chumba, Gladys Ekaru, Lorine Chebet and Emmaculate Chemutai among others.

Moim on the other hand underscored that she had to sacrifice her position as outside hitter and concentrate on the reception and she is happy it paid off.

“The Game was okay compared on how we play Japan in the other years. We played well, since we have not played any friendly after we played Cameroon in the qualifier almost two years ago. Japan’s game helped us calm our nerves since we all were making our debut in the Olympics, feel the court and I can say in the last set we really improved,” Moim said.

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She added, “On myside I sacrificed my position to receive the balls to allow the rest attack. The team is thankful to the Brazilian coaches for impacting massive improvement. We are also using technology that tracks our performance and in the next matches I am hopeful we will pick up.”

“Korea are a good team, they are slow but hit hard, it’s difficult to block because their balls come with high speed.”

-Olympic dream-

Moim like all the other players relished the Olympics experience, having been one of Kenya’s flag bearer alongside Kenya 7s captain Andrew Amonde in the opening ceremony.

“As a captain it’s a big honor playing in the Olympics after trying four times. I thank the coaches for believing in me to lead the team, I will concentrate in one role even if it’s reception to make sure we gain points going forward,” she said.

-Alex Isaboke is reporting from Tokyo, Japan-

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