Beach teams on course in Commonwealth Games campaign

Kenya men and women's national beach volleyball teams began their quest for the African ticket to Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Saturday 26 March at Laboma Beach Resort in Accra, Ghana.

The women's side who landed Rwanda, South Africa and Mauritius in Pool B began their campaign on a winning note to put themselves in prime position to top their group and land a favorable opponent in the quarters. 

Kenya get tough opponents in Beach volleyball Commonwealth qualifiers

With the technical bench settling on Africa silver medalist Naomi Too and partner Veronica Adhiambo to do duty as only one pair is in action for each country, the duo recovered from a set down to beat Rwanda in the opening match. 

Against a resilient and experienced Rwanda, Too and Adhiambo lost the first set by four points at 17-21. They made a strong come back to win the second set 21-18 to set up a decider clash that ended 15-13 in favour of the Kenyans. 

The positive result against Rwanda gave the duo the impetus to handle South Africa for a straight sets win at 21- 16, 21-19 to head to the final group match against Mauritius on Sunday top of the group. 

"The matches were tough and expectedly so. It was definitely a difficult start against Rwanda who are experienced. In the first set, we struggled. We were not settled and they took advantage of that to punish us. 

We settled late but that gave us good momentum for the next two sets for the win. Victory against Rwanda gave us the morale to go hard against South African so we had an easier match," offered Too. 

On Sunday, the women play Mauritius who are also a good team. Too says that previous meetings with the Islanders goes a long way in helping her plan for the Sunday match. 

"This is familiar territory for me and I know a few things about the players we will face on Sunday. My partner is new to this level of competition but her ability and willingness to learn has been a huge boost for us. 

She is also a weapon for our team as many of the competitors have not seen her in action and it is difficult to predict what she is all about. We are, however, aware that the matches get tougher as we proceed but are working to go all the way to winning Kenya the ticket to the Commonwealth Games," added Too. 

On their part, the duo of Ibrahim Oduor and partner James Mwaniki posted mixed results as they lost their opening match 2-1 (21-14, 14-21 and 15-11) to highly ranked Gambia. 

The men, despite Mwaniki picking a shoulder injury during the Gambia match, recovered to pick a straight sets win 21-13 and 21-9 against Zambia. They play South Africa in the final group match on Sunday before the quarters. 

After the group stage matches, all the teams will be ranked before pairings for the knock-out stage are done.