Kenya: Confidence High At Wafalme Stars After African Tourney

Despite Kenya men's volleyball team finishing ninth in the just ended African Nations Championships in Kigali Rwanda, assistant coach David Lung'aho believes the historic win against Egypt has boosted their mental strength.

Lung'aho says beating the North African giants for the first time had changed the mentality of Wafalme Stars.

"The team performed very will and having beaten Egypt has completely changed the way we think. The players believe in themselves more than ever before. Individual performances were so amazing and we want to build on this," said Lung'aho who doubles up as Kenya Volleyball Federation technical director.

"We will try to maintain the team and include other players and draft a weekend training whenever the players are free. We intend to launch a running programme for the team soon," he added.

Kenya defeated Mali 3-0 (25-21,25-21,25-16) on Tuesday night to place ninth in the event that had attracted 16 teams.

Kenya were drawn in tough Pool "D" with Morocco, Tanzania, and Egypt.

The side coached by Gideon Tarus held their nerve to edge Egypt 3-2 (19-25,25-22,25-20,18-25 and 15-12) in their first match before they succumbed to Morocco 3-1 (21-25,25-22,25-17,25-21) in the second match.

The East Africans would later earn a walkover against Tanzania who were disqualified from the event after failing to pay participation fee.

Kenya has never gone past group stage and this year's performance was not any different.

But the results were encouraging considering their scanty preparations.

The players drawn from various clubs were hurriedly assembled after KVF National League play-offs in Mombasa last month and only trained together for five days at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi.

The team is scheduled to arrive at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Thursday 11:40am.

Meanwhile champions Tunisia and Cameroon booked tickets to the next year's World Championships to be hosted in Russia after they finished first and second respectively.

Egypt finished third ahead of Morocco as neighbours Uganda finished fifth.