Women’s hockey team hands walkover in continental tourney after late arrival

The beleaguered national women’s hockey team, Tausi, has dished out a walkover in their opening game at the African Nations Cup Championship following their late arrival to the continental tournament that is currently taking place in Accra, Ghana.

After initially having their first match against Zambia that was supposed to be played on Monday pushed to Wednesday due to financial challenges that had seen the national team almost fail to travel for the competition, Tausi were to take on hosts Ghana today, 18th January 2022, at 1400EAT.

But having left the country on that same Tuesday morning, it meant the team had a touch and go chance in terms of being able to honour their second fixture of the tournament.

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According to reports, the team arrived for the match at what they thought was in time just to be surprised that a 0-3 walkover had already been issued to the hosts Ghana.

“Women's Game 6: Kenya 0 - 3 Ghana. It's a walkover for team Ghana due to the unavailability of the Kenyans this morning,” a post on Ghana’s Hockey page read.

Tausi may take the walkover decision as a bitter pill to swallow as it was not their fault whatsoever for the late travel arrangements.

The Kenya Hockey Union had planned to send both the men's and women's team on Saturday but were forced to shelve their plans after the Sports Fund board reportedly failed to convene a meeting on Friday 14 where they were to approve the 26 million budget the union had requested.

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The board is understood to have belatedly met on Monday 17 and released money to the union only for the team to depart today at 5am thus the late arrival.

Following the walkover decision, the Jackline Mwangi coached girls will have to turn their attention to their remaining two group matches. They take on Zambia on Wednesday in the rescheduled fixture before closing out against Nigeria on Thursday.

According to the schedule, the men’s team, Chui, are supposed to take on Namibia at 8PM today in their opening match before South Africa tomorrow.