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Kenyan women's volleyballers eye last Olympics chance

Xinhua, May 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

Kenyan women's volleyballers are in camp with a mission to reach the Rio 2016 Olympics Games despite their waning fortunes at club and national team level.

The national team have dominated the continent for the past decade but missed out on automatic qualification at the Africa Olympics qualifiers in Cameroon after they were knocked out by Egypt at the semifinals.

Last week, the country's two leading clubs, record seven-time winners, Kenya Pipeline, and five-time titleholders, Kenya Prisons, did not make the finals of the 2016 CAVB Africa Women Club Championship in Tunis, Tunisia.

It marked the first time over a decade that a Kenyan side have not contested for the title in another signal that power was shifting to North Africa.

It is against this background that the Kenyan national team embarked on preparing for the forthcoming world Olympic qualifiers in Puerto Rico and the FIVB World Grand Prix in Poland.

"We expect to qualify and I believe we have what it takes. We believe in the players we have and looking forward to Rio," head coach David Lung'aho said on Thursday.

The optimism of the decorated coach and former national team player might sound hollow considering he failed to take Prisons past the quarter-finals of the Tunis club championships but he does not believe power has shifted to North Africa.

"We are used to having one of our own in the finals if not both. This was a bad year for Kenyan volleyball but the future looks bright," Lung'aho said after his Prisons side were knocked out at the quarter-finals in a 3-1 defeat to Carthage.

He has recalled experienced players dropped in a storm of controversy from the Africa Olympics qualifiers in Cameroon back in his squad as he seeks to grab the last ticket available for Rio in Puerto Rico.

However, the returning wing spiker Mercy Moim is not happy that veteran Prisons striker Lydia Maiyo was not given her comeback to the side.

"I felt bad when I checked the list and she wasn't included. Maiyo has experience I don't know how it will be but we are capable of taking the chance because we are the best. We only need to be focused, teamwork and above all put God first ahead of the competition," Moim said.

In 2015 the Kenyan team won Group 3 of the World Grand Prix to earn promotion to Group 2 to be played next month.

The team have been boosted by the return of veterans Brackcides Khadambi and Janet Wanja alongside Moim who missed the Cameroon qualifiers.

Jane Wacu, Evelyne Makuto and Esther Wangeci are also in the camp.

Kenya will face hosts Puerto Rico, Colombia and Algeria in the fight for the only remaining Olympic slot. Enditem