New hope for Nairobi women's deaf side

Nairobi women’s deaf handball team has joined the Kenya Handball Federation (KHF) league and are expected to play their season-opening match this weekend. 

The team is home to a majority of the national team players who, under coach Peter Mwathi, helped the national women’s Deaf handball team take a fourth-place finish at last month's 24th Summer Deaflympics. 

National men's deaf team braced up for handball league debut

Under the name New Hope, the team is set to go up against their more experienced hearing counterparts as stakeholders look to strengthen deaf handball in the country. 

Mwathi, says the team's performance in Brazil where Kenya finished fourth behind winners Denmark, Turkey and hosts Brazil while Argentina finished last points to a better showing of the players get the right exposure. 

"The players have what it takes to deliver even better results on the world stage. The team's main undoing was lack of exposure, as the team is only assembled when they have such championships, and playing time which left them rusty.

Joining the league will help solve the two problems while also ensuring a majority of the players remain actively involved in the sport week in week out," offered Mwathi. 

The move comes days after their male counterparts, Young City under coach Fredrick Omole made their debut as the 2022 season threw off. 

Young City lost 14-40 to Black Mamba on Sunday, a day after going down 19-26 to league entrants Nairobi City County (NCC). 

The Nairobi men’s team, also home to a majority of the national team players have the same vision as their women's team jn joining the highly competitive 15-team men's league.