Malkia in Hamamatsu, ready for World Championship showdown

The national women’s volleyball team-Malkia Strikers on Thursday morning relocated to from Kurobe town to Hamamatsu City in Japan after a three-day training camp, ahead of the 18th edition of the World Championship that serves off on Saturday.

Speaking exclusively to Citizen Digital after their arrival in Hamamatsu, the city which is scheduled to host Malkia Strikers preliminary matches, the nine-time African champion’s Team Manager David Kilundo said the team is good shape to kick-off the campaign in style come Saturday.

“The entire bsquad is in positive mood after warm-ups with Japanese clubs under watchful eyes of Japanese coach Sadatoshi Sugawara and Japheth Munala. We are for sure we are ready for this championship,” said Kilundo, who is also the Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) Second Vice president.

Despite worries of a poor show in the global fiesta from the previous outings where they have been exiting  in preliminaries, Kilundo believes this is the year to change the trend for better.

“I call up on Kenyans to pray for us and I know we will surprise many, because we have come here with an underdog tag. We have set round-two finish as our target and we must win at least two matches in our pool to proceed to the knockout stage,” offered Kilundo.

Malkia who are returning to the championship after eight years hiatus, will open their quest for the elusive title on Saturday against Kazakhstan in Hamamatsu Indoor Arena before facing Serbia on Sunday.

They will then face Puerto Rico, champions Brazil and Dominican Republic in other pool D matches.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the Senate Kenneth Lusaka has reportedly approved budget for five members of the assembly to attend the competition.

The cleared include Irungu Kang’ata from Murang’a County, Christopher Lagat of Bomet, nominated Senators Beatrice Kwamboka, Victor Prengei and Christine Zawadi who will each pocket up to Ksh 1.4 million per diem.

The three-week championship will see 24 teams battle for the title, serving out on October 20.