NAIROBI, Kenya, August 15 – National women’s hockey team captain Gilly Okumu believes Kenya can qualify for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Okumu said every player in the squad is high on self-belief ahead of the qualifiers for the quadrennial games, set for Pretoria, South Africa in October this year.
“We are really motivated and looking forward to the qualifiers so we can make it to the Olympics as the ladies’ hockey team. With the technical bench we have been promised (by National Olympic Committee of Kenya), we are prepared mentally and physically. It will give us much preparedness as we head to the qualifiers,” Okumu said.
The Blades will face six other teams for the one-week qualifiers, including the hosts, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Uganda, Egypt and Ghana.
Winner of the tournament will earn an automatic slot to Paris.
Okumu revealed much of the training has focused on creating synergy among the players and blending the experienced and the youth.
The team is presently in non-residential training at the City Park Stadium under the close tutelage of coach Meshack Senge.
“The training that we are having right now is just to gel the team and work on the weaknesses that we had during the Commonwealth Games. Having played against our major opponents…that is Ghana and South Africa… at least we now have videos of how they play. We have a feel of what we need to improve on before the qualifiers,” the Amira Sailors taliswoman said.
She added: “If we can also have more Test matches, I think we will be ready because we need to push ourselves more. Before Commonwealth, we normally used to play friendlies against local teams but when we get the opportunity to play against international teams, it will give us the mentality that we are going to play very tough teams.”
The skipper was speaking at City Park Stadium after the team received their Olympics Solidarity Grant from NOCK to assist in their preparations for the qualifiers and beyond.
She said: “We really want to thank NOCK again…and our office for pushing this through. See you in the Olympics…2024.”
Speaking at the same time, coach Senge revealed he has developed an elaborate 25-week training programme to get the best out of his charges.
“We have put together a 25-week programme to help us qualify. We have phased it in three stages. We are targeting to do test series with elite nations, probably Asia…or in the tournament environment that is South Africa, to familiarize ourselves with the conditions we are going to play in,” he said.
Senge expects to whittle down the squad from 46 to 25 players before reducing it further to 18 who will do duty for Kenya.
He described the day as a memorable one, adding that the team grant puts more pressure on them to deliver glory to the country.
“Today is a happy day for us and you know that to who much is given, much is expected. We want to put our best foot forward and show value for money and appreciate what NOCK has done for us,” he said.
The team was nominated for the award by NOCK’s Performance Team after a good performance at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
