Deaflympics: Mwaniki impressed despite heavy losses

Kenya national men’s Deaflympics coach Jeff Mwaniki is impressed by the team’s growth at the ongoing 24th Deaflympics in Caxias do Sul in Brazil.

Mwaniki says that despite the three consecutive losses, there was improvement in the team’s performance.

On Saturday, the Kenyan team lost their third consecutive game of the global event after going down 85-30 to Israel. In the opening game, the US humbled Kenya 143-18 while in the second game Kenya lost 37-91 to Argentina.

“For now I am not focused on a win, my focus is on growth. There is continuous improvement from the last two games against the USA and Argentina,” said Mwaniki.

He added, “We keep on growing and that is what is actually pushing me."

In the game against Israel, the tactician said the score line would have been different if his charges had converted more and scaled down on the turnovers resulting from long passes that were stolen.

"The next game will be better and we are going to have short passes and we are going to convert the chances that we will get.

It was a learning curve for the team, especially having a team that is not so exposed and experienced like our opponents. I pray that when we go home the Deaf will have their own league at least they can compete continuously so that we have continuous progressive growth not just go back home and wait for the next championship.”

The tactician added that Kenya has strong teams in but needed to up their game on the international stage.

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