Kenya clinch bronze medal at Africa Junior Championships as Nairobi prepares for 3 ITF tournaments

The Kenyan trio of Seline Ahoya, Nancy Kawira and Liya Gikunda will return home with a well-deserved bronze medal after the team led by coach Veronica Osogo finished third at the week-long Africa Junior Team Championships (12 & Under) held in Mozambique from 16-23 November.

The trio got the chance to represent East Africa in the continental event after emerging victorious in the East Africa Zone Championships held in April this year in Tanzania.

To finish in third place, the team lost 3-0 at the hands of eventual champions Tunisia, defeated Ghana 2-1, Namibia 3-0 before suffering a 2-1 loss against Zimbabwe. In their last match, Kenya handed the hosts Mozambique a 3-0 thrashing to secure their bronze medal finish.

“I really wanted to edge out Tunisia but lost my chance. What I’m grateful for is we held on for the podium finish. There are things the players need to work on if we have to get the gold which is possible. I was confident from the first day of the tournament that the girls will do well,” Osogo is quoted on the Nation.

Elsewhere, the Nairobi Club will host three back to back International Tennis Federation J4 tournaments at the Nairobi Club starting from Monday 24 October.

The first tournament will take place from 24-29 October, the second from 31 October to 5 November before the final event concludes from 7-12 November.

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Roselida Asumwa, twin sister to Kenya’s tennis sensation Angella Okutoyi, and Cynthia Cheruto will headline the Kenyan cast set to take part in the three tournaments.

Both players will be using the tournament to prepare for the Women's Futures tournament set for November 14-28 at the Karen Club that will be making a return to the country for the first time since 2019.

Nairobi set to host two high profile ITF tennis tournaments

The two high profile events will have a cumulative prize money of 15,000 US Dollars each (around Ksh 1,809,000 shillings) for the whole tournament where Okutoyi will be hoping to achieve success on home soil before departing to the USA for her tennis scholarship.