Kenya Lionesses eye Africa 7s title in Harare

New national women’s 7s Lionesses head coach, Kevin Wambua, says that they will take every match as a final during the Africa Cup Sevens this weekend in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, after naming the final 12 players for Harare, Wambua only made two changes to the team that went to Rio Olympics last month.

Mwamba’s Sinaida Aura returns to the team after missing the Olympics as well as Cynthia Camilla coming in for Camilyne Oyuayo and Linet Moraa.

“I have been working with the team for a long time and have made only two changes and the reason for doing so is to follow the rotation policy used in rugby,” said the coach.

“We have been in the camp for the last two weeks after breaking from the Olympics, the first week we have been focusing on regaining the players’ fitness and conditioning which has been our advantage in the team.”

“During the second week of the camp, I watched their recent games in Rio, and noticed that there were some mistakes which they made and I have been able to straighten them like the racks and the defensive area,” Wambua who takes from Mike Shamiah who led the Lionesses to Brazil, underscored.

Lioness lost last year’s tournament to South Africa 31-7 in an edition that doubled up as Olympics qualifiers.

In this year’s tournament, the Mwamba RFC tactician believes the experience gained from the Paris HSBC Women’s Series, Invitational Rome Sevens and recently the Olympics, where they played with top seeded teams will help them overcome their bitter rivals.

Lionesses are in Pool B alongside Uganda, Tunisia and Madagascar.

“Our target is to avoid South Africa before the finals, It’s a very tricky pool because Madagascar has been playing so many tournaments and they have been improving every year, Uganda have also been preparing well and so they bring something to the game,” he added.

Lionesses will kick-off the tournament on Saturday against Tunisia at 12.20pm before taking on Madagascar at 1.40pm, and then play their last pool match against neighbors’ Uganda at 4pm Kenyan time.

KENYA LIONESSES SQUAD TO AFRICA CUP 7S

1. Philadelphia Olando 2.Stacy Otieno (KCB) 3.Janet Owino 4.Rachel Mbogo 5.Sheila Chajira 6.Irene Otieno (Homeboyz) 7.Catherine Abilla 8.Celestine Masinde 9.Doreen Remour (Mwamba) 10.Cynthia Camila (Homeboyz) 11.Janet Okello(KCB) 12.Michelle Omondi(Mwamba)

MANAGEMENT

Kevin Wambua, Ben Mahinda, Laventer Oguta

AFRICA CUP FIXTURES

South Africa vs Zimbabwe

Kenya vs Tunisia

Namibia vs Senegal

Uganda vs Madagascar

South Africa vs Senegal

Kenya vs Madagascar

Namibia vs Zimbabwe

Uganda vs Tunisia

South Africa vs Namibia

Kenya vs Uganda

Senegal vs Zimbabwe

Madagascar vs Tunisia