Severe weather is turning out to be the biggest challenge for SportPesa All Stars team but coach Stanley Okumbi and his players are learning to take it all into their stride.
The initial training session at Hull City Academy on Thursday saw the prayers taken through their paces in extremely cold conditions.
Temperatures of as low as 4 regress centigrade weren’t so easy for the players to cope with.
The inclement weather is as a result of Storm Doris and meteorologists are saying they expect the storm to continue bringing ‘very strong winds and gales’.
“The only moment I encountered such conditions is when I visited Russia a few years ago and saw ice rinks being removed from the pitch. All in all, the cold weather was difficult for us,” striker Allan Wanga said.
Coach Okumbi said as much as temperatures remain severe, we have no choice but to learn how to cope with the conditions.
“It was damn cold on Thursday and this is something we are not used to. It’s good though that we came here early to acclimatize.
“We believe it won’t be that bad by the time we get to serious business on Monday against our hosts.
“We realised that when it’s so cold, the trick is to remain mobile and active, so we really tried to ensure that all the players are in motion at all times,” Okumbi said.
East Yorkshire, where Hull City is based has been in the eye of Storm Doris over the past few days, with warnings of travel disruption, damage to buildings and flying debris across the county. Branded a “weather bomb” by the Met Office, Doris brought down trees and forced the closure of the port of Liverpool.
Meanwhile, All Stars had their second training session at the University of Hull. This followed an interactive session with members of the university.
The team visited the KCOM Stadium yesterday where they interacted with their opponents.