Lungaho lifts the pressure off Malkia ahead of Olympics qualifiers

National women’s volleyball team technical director David Lung’aho has taken the pressure off  the shoulders of Malkia Strikers ahead of the Inter-continental 2020 Olympics qualifiers set for Italy from August 2 -4.

Malkia Strikers jetted out for Italy on Tuesday evening ahead of the championship where they are penciled to face world-beaters Netherlands, Belgium and World Championships runners up Italy, and Lunga’ho has alluded that it will be ‘difficult’ to wrestle the single ticket from the seasoned opponents.

Lung’aho who was speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing national schools games in Kisumu on Wednesday however added that Malkia Strikers can still make it to Japan in the next Olympics qualification phase of Africa continent set for January.

The inter-continental qualifiers are played by the top-ranked volleyball countries in the world with two-time Africa champions Cameroon also participating in Brazil.

“We are almost sure it will be difficult to defeat those teams but we can still qualify because we have other Olympics qualification phase of African teams set for January,” he underscored.

The team is aiming to return to Olympics tourney after a 15-year drought, with their last outing dating back to 2004 where they finished at position 11, similar to the previous and first outing in 2000.

Lung’aho added that Malkia will use the inter-continental qualifiers as build ups for All African Games to be held in Morocco from August 16-30 where Kenya will be seeking to defend their 2015 title.

“The girls will get good exposure in Italy ahead of Morocco games and that’s why you saw we made some changes in the squad to give other players experience and we are sure we will be primed for African Games after Italy assignment,” he told Citizen Digital.

Veteran Brackside Agala was dropped out of the squad for youthful Lorine Chebet and Pamela Chepkirui.

A fortnight ago, the four-time All African Games champions lost 3-2 to Cameroon in African Women’s Championship held in Egypt failing to clinch the record 10th Africa title.