All set for the inaugural East Africa hockey 5-a-side tournament

Kenya will play host to a two-day East Africa hockey five-a-side youth tournament set to take place over the weekend at the City Park.

The tournament brings together six teams from Uganda and Kenya in both men and women categories.

According to Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) secretary general Wycliffe Momanyi , the preparations are through for the first edition of the tournament that will involve two teams from Kenya and one from Uganda in each category.

“Everything is in place for the tournament so far, we are only waiting for the Ugandans to arrive by the end of today, already one of the facilitators from Uganda arrived yesterday,” Momanyi told Citizen Digital.

Alongside the tournament, training programs for coaches, umpires and other officials from the region will be administered jointly by KHU, Africa Hockey Federation, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) as well as the FIH Hockey Academy under the Targeted Assistance Program (TAP).

With the tournament mostly made under-19 players, Momanyi said they are seeking to groom the youngsters for the future.

“Ideally this competition is set for under-19 s but it is open. What we are targeting as a Union is to oversee this youngsters develop into the senior team in the next four to five years,” said Momanyi.

The players that represented Kenya at the 2018 Youth Olympics are some of the participants in the tournament set for Saturday and Sunday.

The Kenyan team which has been training at the City Park facility is under the tutelage of Mike Malungu who was in charge of the team that qualified for the Youth Olympics held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.