Purring Lung’aho wants nothing short of the title

Prisons head coach David Lunga’ho is optimistic that his charges will win gold in this year’s women Africa Club Championship.

The nine-day event which will attract the best volleyball teams from the continent serves off from March 6-15 in Cairo, Egypt.

“We started training about four weeks ago but we moved into Kasarani today(Tuesday) and I am happy with the progress. The players are responding very well, the young players that we brought on board from school; two of them, that is Sharon Chepchumba and Laureen Chebet are doing very well.We are hopeful that we are going to perform better this time,” Lung’aho affirmed.

Al Ahly, the host club, will be among the top guns that the Prison queens will be out to conquer.

Chepchumba, a left attacker, and Chebet, a middle blocker, who are both students at Kwanthanze Secondary School, are expected to bolster the squad by spurring competition in the team.

In  April last year,  Prisons won bronze after tearing down former champions Al-Ahly 3-2 in a captivating five-set thriller  (25-13, 10-25, 25-20, 22-25, 10-15) in the third-place playoff, and Lung’aho will be keen to pull yet another surprise on the north African side should their paths cross.

“Now we want to improve our performance. Last year we bagged bronze medal so this time we are going for gold,” he said, adding that: “History is on our side because the first time we won gold in this championship it was held in Egypt and now after ten years we are going back to the same place.

“He went on: “That is a motivation to us.We believe in the players and we are going for nothing short of the title.”

The club championship is considered one of the most attractive volleyball tournaments in Africa, attracting the crème de la crème.

This, however, does not worry the experienced Lung’aho who has maintained that they will do all it takes to bag the crown.

“We know that it’s going to be tough. We have bitter rivals like Pipeline who are also going to the tournament. There is also Al Ahly of Egypt, and defending champions Carthage (Tunisia).”

Pipeline, like their Cairo bound counterparts Prisons, are training at Kasarani Indoor Arena with a mission of flying the Kenyan flag high when the tourney serves off.

A record 21 teams have already confirmed their participation in this year’s event. This is three more than the number which participated in 2008 and 2017.

Last year, Carthage claimed the honours on home soil in Monstir after beating Egypt’s Shams 3-2 in the final.

Ahly, a giant in the continent have eight titles under their belt, while Kenya’s  Pipeline have seven.

Full- list

Carthage – Tunisia

Marsa-Tunisia

Prisons -Kenya

Shams Club-Egypt

Alexandria Sporting (Egyptian

DGSP (CGO)

Asec Mimosas (Ivory Coast)

Vision VB, Nkumba University (UGA)

BDF (Botswana),

AS Douanes (Burundi)

Muzinga (Burundi)

Canon de Ndjii, VB Club (Republic of Congo)

Injis, FAP, Bafia and Nyong et Kelle (Cameroon)