The national handball women’s team coach Peter Mwanthi is banking on his vast experience at the international scene to help guide Kenya to glory at the 24th Summer Deaflympics in Brazil.
The Games will be held in the Southern town of Caxias Do Sul from May 1 to 15.
Only five teams namely: hosts Brazil, Kenya, Turkey, Argentina and Denmark will compete in the women’s event.
The matches will be played in a round robin format.
Reckoning that his, is an inexperienced side, coach Mwanthi said he is preparing the girls for the tough duels in Brazil, by sharing with them the knowledge of an international match.
“None of these girls have ever played an international match but the good thing is that being a coach, I have dealt with strong teams outside there. What I am trying to do now is to bring into them the mind of an international match,” said Mwanthi.
“By giving them this kind of knowledge, I want to believe that once they catch up, they will be able to compete well and even pull a surprise.”
The team, alongside their male counterparts, athletics (men and women), basketball (men and women), football (women) and golf (men) have been in camp since April 1 at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi.
Kenya only needs to win two matches to be in the medal bracket.
Mwanthi said that he is impressed with the progress of her girls in training.
He singled out ball handling techniques to be one of areas they have made huge progress on ahead of the games.
“The girls are understanding well what they should be doing. We started with build-up fitness and they responded really well. Their ball handling technique is really good, actually I never expected them to pick up that fast. When you have good ball handling, then dealing with other technical things like movements is very easy,” said Mwanthi.
The team’s captain Timinah Barasa said their confidence has improved thanks to coach Mwanthi’s training. He said they are gold for a gold medal in Brazil.
“I have the confidence that we will do a good job and bring the gold medal home. The coach has been training us, so as we go into the competition, we will have the equal skills required to get the medals,” she said.