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Kenya women's volleyball national team will open their African Olympics qualifying campaign against Egypt on Sunday at the Palais polyvalent des sports (Paposy) Arena.
Malkia Strikers will be looking for a positive start to the five-day competition whose winner will get the sole slot reserved for Africa at the Tokyo Olympics set for July 24 to August 9.
But this match against Egypt will bring back memories of the 2016 Rio Olympics qualifiers where Kenya lost 2-3 to the North Africans in the semi-finals. These two teams last met in 2017 at the Africa Cup of Nations and Kenya coach Paul Bitok admits he has little knowledge about his opponents.
“We have only watched one video of Egypt from last year’s Cup of Nations in July. That is a long time back and a lot of things have changed. We don’t know what to expect because they also have a new coach which means they will have a new system and probably a fast paced match. We will use the first set to analyse them well,” Bitok told Nation Sport after Saturday’s training at the match venue.
Leonida Kasaya is expected to start ahead of Noel Murambi as part of Bitok’s game plan to counter Egypt’s speed.
“Leonida is not a newcomer in the first six, she played almost 80 percent of the matches at the World Cup as a starter. She has good speed and can attack fast balls that’s why we prefer to start with her. Different opponents call for different approaches so it’s good that we have many options on the bench to vary our game plan,” said Bitok.
The Kenya Commercial Bank outside hitter, who made her first international appearance here in Cameroon, was predominantly used as a substitute by previous coaches and she is relishing the challenge of being trusted with a starting place.
“Being a starter is so different from being a substitute because you have to deliver from the start. I am psychologically prepared and also in good shape. We have to start very well with high morale and take early control of the match tomorrow,” said Kasaya.
“The first match is very important and we have to win to send a warning to the other teams. We are going to give our best against Egypt. This is like a final to us,” she added.
But Egypt coach Marco Quieroga is playing it cool ahead of the opener saying his young side will be out to give a “good surprise” to "favourites" Kenya and Cameroon. The average age of the Egyptian side is 22, the youngest in this competition that will be played in round robin format.
“Kenya and Cameroon have been very active of late. They have played in big competitions and gained good experience. I have a young team and we just want to have a good match and hopefully give a good surprise to Kenya,” said Quieroga.
“We have been in camp for 50 days and played a total of nine friendly matches in Brazil. The players have understood my philosophy and even though we don’t have much experience we have worked on other important aspects like technical, psychological and physical. Our target is to win all our matches,” pointed out the former Brazil, Peru and Portugal coach.
Meanwhile, the technical meeting was held on Saturday 10pm EAT with the highlight being the use of the Video Challenge System for the first ever on African soil.
Hosts Cameroon will face Botswana in the second match of the day at the same venue.
SUNDAY FIXTURE (all times EAT)
