Mwathi confident of good national team showing in Africa Games

National men's handball team are set to do duty early next year in the Africa Championships which are the qualifying tournament for the 2023 World Men's Handball Championship set for Poland and Sweden. 

Head coach Peter Mwathi is buoyed by the competition witnessed in the just concluded Kenya Handball Federation (KHF) league as he believes he will have a better squad heading to the African showpiece. 

"For the first time in a long while, the league was not a two or three-team affair. We had serious competition at the top. It was really good to see the national team players, especially the newbies replicating what they had learned at the club level. That gives me confidence that we will have a good squad and gelling will be no problem," offered Mwathi. 

As he looks to release his provisional squad, the tactician says the mix of youth and experience witnessed in the previous squad that did duty in Tunisia in 2020 will be at play again. 

"In the last edition,

we gave a few players a chance to represent their country and that will play to our advantage as they make a return to the same stage with experience that will come in handy. I believe they will be better prepared mentally, as they know what to expect at that level, and they are also tactically better," added Mwathi. 

The last edition of the biennial competition saw Egypt dethrone Tunisia to book a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics Games. Kenya, participating for the third time after a debut in 2004 and again in 2016 lost all their three group matches for an early exit in the main Cup contention. 

The Mwathi-coached men arrived in Tunisia late, missing their opening match against DRC, who were awarded a 10-0 win as per competition rules. They faced Egypt the following day, losing 19-44 before going down 26-17 to Guinea in the final match. 

The side lost by a solitary goal to Libya at 27-26 in the placement matches and 14-30 to Nigeria. They won a fifteenth-place match 28-17 against Zambia.