Oyuayo backs Lionesses to shine in Tokyo

The Kenya women’s rugby national team manager Camilyne Oyuayo has expressed confidence that they will shine at the Tokyo Olympic Games that officially began on Friday.

The Lionesses will start their campaign against New Zealand before taking on China and the United Kingdom after they were pooled together in Group A.

Speaking after the training session at the competitions venue Ariake Arena on Thursday July 23, 2021, Oyuayo said the team had a good training session focusing on mental and physical strength.

“We believe that we are still on course and very and as well the morale and spirit are very high. We are not guranteed to have daily sessions because of quarantine but any day we get an opportunity we will make sure we will maximize it.

“We were supposed to  quarantine for 14 days and today is our 11th so we have three more days to go because it’s supposed to end on the 26th. This means that we will hook up with the team on 27th which will be two days before we kick off our tournament.

“We haven’t experienced much in the village because we are not allowed to move, we only do it after being picked up by a bus but we don’t go beyond the basement. We haven’t had the opportunity to go around and explore Tokyo but I am hopeful we shall do that at the end of our stay here,” Oyuayo said.

The second batch of the team, which was held up in Tokyo for Covid-19 precautions linked up with the rest of the Lionesses squad at Team Kenya’s Kurume residential training last week.

The team of six players and Team Manager Camilyne Oyuayo was held back in Tokyo as a procedural precaution after one of the passengers on their Qatar Airways flight to Tokyo from Doha tested positive for Covid-19.

None of the Kenyan players and officials in Tokyo has returned positive results after being tested multiple times, testimony to the effectiveness of the team’s bubble training camp at Kasarani and careful travel procedures.

The Kenyan players who were on the same flight as the Covid-19 positive athlete from another country are Sheila Chanjira, Diana Awino, Vivian Akumu, Leah Wambui, Judith Auma and Stella Nelima.