Kenya experienced mixed results on Monday, day 4 of the ongoing Africa Wheelchair Basketball in Angola’s capital city when the men clashed with DRC in an East Africa derby, thrashing them 45-35 while the women earlier lost 71-21 to Africa’s number one ranked team Algeria and again lost to the continent’s second ranked team South Africa 71-10.
Speaking after the men’s game from the event’s venue, Pavilaho Multiuso de Kilamba, team manager Joseph Ochieng thanked both of his charges , praising them for an amazing work ethic.
” Its a learning process, both genders have some young guys that we are trying to integrate into the team, eventually we will get there,” said Ochieng.
The women started out slow in the blocks , allowing Algeria’s point guards Djamila Khemgani and Menouba Fuoulani, to sneak behind Ashely Autai on counters , am endeavor that resulted to Algeria leading the first two quarters headed to half time.
Kenya,coached by Sarah libese, responded by bringing in the experienced Esther Asige as shooter and Eunice Otieno as Guard, while Algeria, Houri youcef’s charges romped in the legendary Samiha Abdelali, also a shot put two time olympian, in Paris 2024 and Tokyo …
Kenya did well in the third and fourth quarter, but it was too late to play catch-up with the African champions who won the final battle 71-21.
Later that afternoon, Kenya’s men took to the court against the DRC, (Les leopard) with a remarkable comeback after losing the first two quarters, headed to half time losing to Les Leopard 20-32.
Assistant coach Maurice Ouma stood up, and so was his two captains, Ian Kanji and Itaken Timoi, inspiring a remarkable comeback to a side that finished the job with Dennis Ndung’u, Simon Ngugi, Milton Ilahuya, Kelvin Njoroge and Kanji after Timoi came out for Njoroge, who later also paved way for Robert Kimotho and Ilahuya giving chance to star boy Aman Odido, Kenya finally winning their first game at the championship 45-35.
Kenya’s final game of the day came in the evening, 4:30 pm local time against South Africa, the AmaWheela girls , a do or die for Kenya if they wanted their chances on Africa’s holy grail of 5× 5 wheelchair basketball, taking into consideration their loss on Angola on Sunday and Algeria early Monday, sadly losing the tie 71-10 , hence deeming their realistic chance of qualifying for the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Ottawa, September 2026.