Kibet banking on experience ahead of RedBull 3x3 World Finals

Mathew Kibet will, for the second year in a row, skipper a Kenyan team, RBK, to the Red Bull Half Court Tournament World Finals set for Belgarde, Serbia in September.

This will also be the second time Kenya will be represented in the World Finals, after making its debut in 2022 in Egypt, this time round the staging of the games is set for Belgrade which is considered the home of 3x3 basketball.

Kibet led a quartet of national team players Griffin Ligare and James Mwangi as well as Derrick Olang to the national title against a talented team that had national team players among them Ken Wachira and Kenya Ports Authority duo of Eugene Adera and John Wiljas.

Three of the four winners were part of the Kenyan team that was in Egypt last year, Kibet and Olang playing in the same team while Mwangi featured for a second team. The three came together this year after their respective partners from last year were named in the national team thus had to be part of the national squad.

Ligare, on his part, was making his debut in the 3x3 format of the game but his shooting prowess proved a game changer for the RBK men. 

“We have had quite an interesting journey in the qualifiers. Starting from the Nairobi region games, we knew we had the potential if we get the chemistry right and that was our first plan of action.

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We had a system that we had to work within and everyone played with the plan; none was selfish, and which helped us get through some of the tough fixtures right from the regional qualifiers.

On paper, it might have looked like we had an easy path especially with the score lines but it was a challenging journey and it took resilience to win,” Kibet offered.

The captain believes that the team will have a better outing in Belgrade as they gained valuable experience in Egypt.

“Going into this year’s final, we have lessons that we picked in the last outing that will come in handy. We can manage time better. We know how to plan our plays around personal and team foul management.

We can scout opponents better now and the composure, generally will be better. We can stick to game plans and also adjust accordingly depending on whom we are playing and how they are handling the match,” he concluded.