• Prison will play USFA of Burundi today
•Indakala said it is a mixed feeling altogether considering that they are the only Kenyan side still in the race.
Image: FILE
Kenya Pipeline coach Margaret Indakala has described their progress in African Club Championship in Egypt as a huge motivation for a team that was initially considered underdogs.
“I am over the moon for this far we have come and I must say we are honoured to be carrying the hopes of all Kenyans in this prestigious event after our counterparts exited in the preliminary.”
The Africa bronze medalist came from a set down to see off FAP of Cameroon 3-1 on Wednesday to set up a date with hosts Sporting today at 7 pm in one of the four quarter-final matches lined up.
Other Kenya representatives, Kenya Prisons and KCB fell out in the preliminary round. Indakala said it is a mixed feeling altogether considering that they are the only Kenyan side still in the race.
She said: “It’s God’s will that we are still in this race. On paper, we were actually the underdogs of the three Kenyan teams. However, I’m super happy that the underdogs' tag is working for us so far. We will not be complacent going into the quarter-final match against Sporting but we will put our best foot forward and we hope the results will favour us.”
She added: “It will have been interesting if all the three teams made it to the last eight but that is beyond us. We are overwhelmed and honoured by hopes the Kenyans have put on us and we have no choice but to push for better results.”
On the flip side, a Prisons’ player who sought anonymity said they were bound to exit the event early considering what they went through before and during the championships.The national champions failed to go past hosts El Shams 3-1 (25-18,25-20,22-25,25-21) in their final Group ‘D’ match and they will now compete in the classification matches for position 9-12.
Prison will play USFA of Burundi today. The source said hell broke loose at Kenya Prisons when the scheduled date of travel was pushed forward with players and officials’ travelling in bunches.
“Come to think of it! Why did the Internal Security ministry even allow us to train for all that long when they knew very well they were not keen on funding our trip to Egypt?” the player asked.
She added: “We gave it our all during league playoffs as we had been given an ultimatum and we qualified on merit. Then we landed in Egypt only to find out later we risked being locked out of the hotel as we had not cleared the bill. Mentally we were disturbed and the results are there for every to see.”
The other Kenyan team KCB also fell by wayside, succumbing to former champions Carthage of Tunisia 3-0 (25-18,25-21,25-19) and will now play Egypt’s Shooting.