Women’s softball team out to make statement in Canada

The national women’s team broke camp on Saturday after their final training ahead of the World Softball Championships that will be held in Surrey, Canada from July 15 to 24.

The-15 member squad at camped at the Africa Nazarene University in Nairobi for five days as they seek to leave a mark in their first attempt at the championships that aims at having softball returned to the Olympics roster in the Tokyo 2020 Games.

The sport termed as a ‘silent sport’ in Kenya by softball head coach, Lewis Tekei was dropped in 2012 alongside baseball citing a perceived a lack of global appeal and participation.

Kenya and Uganda are the only African countries taking part at the global showpiece and will be going into the tournament as the underdogs.

“We’ve been performing quite well, especially regionally. We took part in the African Championships and beat Zambia and Zimbabwe but we finished third behind South Africa and Botswana in the World Cup qualifiers, but I’m certain we’ll put up a good performance since this is the first time we’ve actually had a training camp giving us ample time to train,” Tekei added.

“We hope that by the time the tournament is over, the sport will start gaining popularity among Kenyans, and it might actually grow in schools and other institutions,” he told.

The team has been pooled together with European champions Italy, New Zealand and Peru, and will play its first match against New Zealand on the opening day of the tournament.

-Report by Loise Wanjiku