Lionesses to hit camp in January for Afrobasket qualifiers

The national women basketball team head coach Ronnie Owino says his charges will begin training in January  ahead of the 2021 Afrobasket Championship Zone Five qualifiers.

The qualifiers are set to take place in February 2021with the host nation yet to be announced.

The Lionesses will face Rwanda, Uganda, Egypt and Tanzania in a fight for the sole ticket to represent the region the continental tournament.

“This year we did not have any international duties but we have our next international assignment next year and therefore the Corona pandemic did not affect our international duty in any way,” he said.

The Lionesses finished second in the 2019 Zone Five Qualifiers held in Uganda coming second to Egypt to earn a ticket to Senegal where they competed in the 2019 Afrobasket Championship losing all matches against Mozambique, Cape Verde and Angola.

In their last international assignment – the Afrobasket Championship –  held in Senegal, controversy marred their campaign after the players released a video, widely circulated on social media, complaining over poor conditions they were subjected to.

The team also complained of the government’s failure to facilitate the full squad to travel to Dakar for the tourney.

They went ahead to lose 51-64 to Angola in the knockout stage having lost 39-55 to Mozambique and 57-64 to Cape Verde in the group stage.