A. WesongaKenya Hockey National teams gear up for 13th African Games
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Reading Time: 3min | Sat. 24.02.24. | 16:36
The tournament, featuring five men's teams and four women's teams, marks the sixth time field hockey has been included in the African Games since its introduction in the fourth edition in 1987 in Nairobi, Kenya
The African Hockey Federation (AfHF) has released the schedule for the 13th African Games, set to take place from March 15th to 22nd, 2024, at the Theodosia Okoh Hockey Stadium in Accra, Ghana.
The tournament, featuring five men's teams and four women's teams, marks the sixth time field hockey has been included in the African Games since its introduction in the fourth edition in 1987 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Hockey was last featured on the games program in 2003.
Kenya is poised to make a significant impact on both the men's and women's fronts, with the national teams intensifying their preparations for the upcoming competition.
Under the guidance of Willis Otieno, the men's national team has been preparing since early this year.
Otieno acknowledged the challenges faced in preparing the Kenya national hockey team for the 13th African Games due to ongoing league matches.
"We haven't had the best preparation so far because of the ongoing league matches. Ideally, weekends should be our best training time, but we can't do it because the league matches are on, affecting key players from teams like Western Jaguars, who have been playing every weekend," he said.
Despite these challenges, Otieno remains optimistic about the team's capabilities, citing their performance in the 2024 Olympic qualifiers last year.
Reflecting on a specific game against Egypt, he noted, "We created lots of chances which we did not convert. Moving forward, we are capable of creating these chances, but the problem is finishing, so we are working on our finishing. For our set pieces, we have good forwards who will help us get the penalty corners, but our conversion is not where it's supposed to be, so those are the key areas that we need to work on."
Emphasizing Kenya's historical strengths, he revealed the team's strategy "As a country, our strength has always been our fitness and our speed. When we play these top teams, we intend to defend well and hit them on the counter-attacks because I believe we have the speed to execute good counter-attacks."
Otieno addressed the unique challenge of uniting players from different clubs at the national team citing the importance of fostering team cohesion.
"This is a national team, and for a national team, we have almost all top clubs represented. The first thing as coaches is to bring unity so that we can speak one language and be on the same page, regardless of the club you're playing for," he said.
"The unity of the team is our main agenda moving forward so that all players can feel part and parcel of the national team. These players play different kinds of hockey, different styles, and different systems in their clubs, so we need to bring one system for the national team that every player understands and feels they can play in."
Otieno believes that with open communication and equal opportunities no one in the team feels left out or victimized and with this, they will out there and try to perform better than what the team did in the last national team assignment in South Africa.
