Kenya’s campaign at the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics start on Sunday with the women’s basketball team opening their Group “A” fixtures at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in court one from 10:30 am local time (4:30am in Kenya).
Later at 4pm local time (10 am in Nairobi), Kenya men’s handball team will launch their assault in Group “A” against Serbia at the Komazawa Olympic Park General Sports Ground Indoor Stadium, also on Court One.
The two disciplines are among the five in which Kenya will compete at in the 25th edition of the quadrennial multi-sport event that concludes on November 26.
The rest are; athletics swimming, and golf.
Gianta Lithuania, and Italy are the other teams that Kenya will face off in the women’s basketball in Group “A”. Group “B” consists Greece, Ukraine and Japan while Group “C” members are Chinese Taipei, Turkey, United States of America and Poland.
Towering Sylvia Adhiambo who will be manning the Kenya’s basketball defence has pledged to ward off marauding ways of the resilient Australians, adding that she is not in Japan to joke with any rivals.
“Our homework is all done, all departments are in order, our focus will be to reach the podium and bag the gold medals, so Australia should prepare for a day of long knives in the ring,” Adhiambo underlined.
Kenya deaf basketball head coach Mary Chepkoi indicated that they expect a strong start in their third appearance at the Deaflympics.
“I believe we have prepared well and we are ready to play this Game. We have never tackled Australia before, but we believe we have what it takes to face them. We will take one game at a time,” said Chepkoi, who is also the coach of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) Women’s basketball team nicknamed “Lynx”.
Kenya heads into the match buoyed by their maiden win in the Deaflympics held in Brazil in 2022. In that match, Kenya defeated Brazil 98-12 and were ranked seventh overall.
Since the Australian players are tall, Chepkoi emphasized the need to box their opponents out to get the rebounds.
“They have tall players and that will be a challenge in our end but we will remind our players to box out to be able to get the rebounds every time a shot is taken,” she said, adding that they are taking one match at a time in the opponents.
Men’s handball custodian Samuel Gitonga promised to be hawkeyed on the goal-mouth, pledging to leave no stone unturned against Serbia in the crunch encounter.
” We have studied Serbia well, we know their weak points, that where we will hit the most, we have to rake in the points in the opening encounter,” Gitonga noted.
Kenya deaf handball coach Jack Habert said Serbia will not be able to beat them if his players stick to instructions.
“We have been preparing for this Deaflympics since the last one in Brazil in 2022. All the teams in the championship are good. It is upon us to be tactical to make sure we don’t give them the chance to play well,” said Habert. Defending champions Croatia and France are the other teams Kenya will face in Group “A”.
Group “B” consists Japan, Germany, Turkey and Brazil.