MIRAMAS, France, Jul 15 – In his maiden Olympic Games, Malkia Strikers head coach Japheth Munala has vowed to leave a positive mark when he guides his charges in the multi-sporting event that starts July 26 in the French capital.
The national women’s volleyball team is intensifying her training in Miramas, South of France and had an opportunity to gauge their fitness when they played local side ISTRES in a warm-up match on Monday.
Malkia easily won the match 4-0 (25-13, 25-16, 25-12), but Munala told Capital Sport that the friendly match has exposed their weak points which they will fine tune in training before the next build-up match on Thursday.
“It’s good to have a friendly match before a big match because it exposes our mistakes. This team (ISTRES) has enabled us know where we are not doing well so that we rectify those mistakes especially on the reception and net defence during training,” Munala, the KCB women’s volleyball boss said.
He added, “We will have another friendly playing the boys side on Thursday to finally gauge how our defence, attack and reception is before we head to the Paris Olympics. It’s my first time being at the Olympics as a coach and I need to leave a mark.”
ISTRES captain Estelle Agosti was grateful to Team Kenya for the friendly, which she said gave them an exposure.
“It was an exceptional day for my team, Kenya is a good team, for us it was a good experience. We wish Kenya all the best at the Olympics,” the opposite attacker revealed.
Kenya will open her campaign against third ranked in the world Brazil July 29 before taking on Poland ranked 7th in the world July 31 and then wrap-up with a clash against Japan sitting 9th in the world August 3.
“The players will have to give 100 percent in the game at the Olympics. About the group, it is not a walk in the park, the three teams are ranked higher in the world, but we will give it our best shot,” Munala underscored.
Experienced Libero, Agripina Kundu, who is one of the players who featured at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, encouraged the young players to go enjoy themselves and leave a mark while at it.
“This friendly has shown us that we have to put in more effort, the girls are okay, have morale. We are going to improve on our reception, that is what we picked from this match,” Kundu said.
She added, “In Olympics, it’s not easy, the debutants need to put more effort since they will meet the top professional players unlike in Africa where we know each other. The Olympics is a good opportunity for players, this is my second time to appear, so I can tell the younger players to go out there and enjoy themselves.”
Commenting on Kenya’s pool, Kundu said, “We are going to face the same teams we played in Tokyo that is Brazil and Japan, Poland it’s long since we played against them. I am praying we win even a set.”
-Alex Isaboke is reporting from Miramas, France-
