NAIROBI, Kenya, August 14 – National women’s volleyball team captain Mercy Moim says they want nothing else but to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris, France as they prepare to compete at the Africa Nations Championships in Cameroon.
Moim said the team have trained well and will not be sidetracked by anything as they aim to follow up their appearance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“So far so good…everyone is focused. All the players know this is our best chance of making it to Paris for the Olympics. The morale in the camp is an all-time high…from what I’ve seen in training, each one of us is raring to go for this title,” the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) player said.
Malkia will be keen on ending their hoodoo at the continental level, having failed to upstage the hosts from the throne on three occasions in Yaounde (2017), Cairo (2019) and Kigali (2021).
Heading to West Africa last week, the team had participated in the FIVB Challenger Cup in France where they lost 3-1 to Colombia in the quarterfinal.
Before that, the team was in a two-week residential training camp in Morocco where they played two friendlies against the hosts before departing for France.
In the run-up to the Challenger Cup, Malkia played a friendly against Mexico before squaring up against Vietnam after the campaign.
Moim said these fixtures have refined them into better players.
“The friendlies have been a huge help to our game…starting from Morocco. In France, we played against Mexico and Vietnam. These matches have shown us the areas in which we need to improve. We have worked on the mistakes with the help of our coach and now we know what we need to do,” she said.
The team, under the tutelage of Brazilian Luizomar de Moura, is a mix of youth and experience, with the highlight being the return of the Kenya Pipeline duo of Trizah Atuka and Rose Magoi.
Atuka has managed to overcome her injury woes – which saw her miss the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and last year’s World Championships – to lead her club to the national league title in December last year as well as second place at this year’s continental club championships in Tunisia.
Magoi is returning to the national team since she last wore the national jersey in 2015 at the African Games.
Also returning to the squad is the experienced Leonida Kasaya.
