A mix of youth and experience for Morocco-bound beach team

National beach volleyball coaches Sammy Mulinge and Patrick Owino have settled for a mix of youth and experience as they look to have the teams qualify for the Tokyo Olympics and join their indoor counterparts at the Summer Games. 

The teams have been in residential training camp in readiness for the championship set to be hosted by the Royal Moroccan Volleyball Federation, set for June 21 to 28. 24 men’s teams and 17 women’s team are expected to compete for the sole continental spot to the Olympics.

In the men’s team, Owino has settled for experienced Ibrahim Oduor and James Mwaniki who were the outright winners of the Nyerere Cup in Dar-es-Salaam a week before the national team was named. The other partnership will have Enock Mogeni and Brian Melly. 

“For the short term plan that is qualifying for the Olympics, we had to go for the experience that Oduor and Mwaniki bring to the table. The two have played both indoor and beach volleyball for some time and they offer Kenya a good chance of qualification in the short term. Forth the other duo, the two have seen tremendous improvement in their game and they were impressive in training,” 

“Their inclusion was also part of a long term plan where we are looking at building our future in the sport around them. They have a few years of action in them and they are learning a lot from the seniors. We should be at a point where we do not have to rely on players from indoor volleyball and that is what our long term plan is, to build our own pool of talent. There was a development program launched in 2019 by the National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) but that sort of took a back seat, we expect it to be relaunched after the Olympics,” said coach Mulinge. 

In the women’s team, with Naomi Too coming off an injury and missing the slot inj the final team, Gaudencia Makokha remains the most experienced beach players in the squad.

“Brackcides Agala, Yvonne Wavinya and Phosca Kasisi are very new in beach volleyball. They have, however, shown improvement. Agala’s experience in indoor volleyball and her ability to learn fast and control the game gave her an edge and she will partner well with Makokha. The other duo, just like the men, are also going to help us build a strong team for the future,” added Mulinge.