• Kojal finished second behind Western top seed Josiah Wandera in the seven rounds men’s trials.
• The lady’s team is made up of Doreen Juma who finished ahead of Nelly Mutuma, and youngster Pamela Glory who got a wild card.
Image: Courtesy
After failing to make the cut to the previous All Africa Games by a whisker, Ken Kojal will finally make a debut at this year’s event and believes he has what it takes to perform well.
Kojal booked a slot to the Morocco event in August thanks to her come from behind to see off favourite Peter Theuri of Nairobi 3-1(7-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8) during the April national trials in Nairobi.
“I had trained well with my teammates and knew I would make the cut this time round after narrowly missing previous editions”. said Kojal.
Kojal finished second behind Western top seed Josiah Wandera in the seven rounds men’s trials, to reserve a place in the national team with an unbeaten record.
“I lost to Wandera 3-2 in the group stages before falling to him 3-0 in the round robin event, which means I wasn’t that bad and am currently working on my weaknesses before the tournament.” said the 32 year old.
Kojal trains with his team mates at City table tennis club at Nairobi’s city stadium, under veteran coach and former Kenyan international Stanley Moyi as they await the official camp., where Kenya team coach Fahd Daim will takeover on a yet to be announced date.
Kojal will partner with senior Josiah Wandera , Brian Mutua and upcoming junior star Zaki Pema who got a wild card.Top seed Mutua also earned a wildcard to the (AAG) by virtue of being in the May, Olympic Solidarity Program training in the Denmark.
“It is every player’s dream to don the national team colours and am happy my prayers and hard work saw me get my first chance at age 32, after finishing second among the seven best locally” noted Mutua.
He added: “I am very happy” and looking forward to reach the knock out stage, despite the imminent great opposition from Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana.
I watched them in the African championships hosted at Kasarani in 2017, and I know what to expect from them.”
Head coach Fahd Daim observed he was impressed by all the trialists both men and women, though Kojal, who beat all the odds to clinch the direct ticket to Rabat surprised him.
“Mutua who trained in Denmark will bring more dynamics to the team and, I expect him to reach the knock out stage, after falling in the preliminaries during the 2018 India common Wealth games”noted Daim
The lady’s team is made up of Doreen Juma who finished ahead of Nelly Mutuma, and youngster Pamela Glory who got a wild card, after veteran Sejal Thakkar who represented Kenya in the commonwealth games retired from the game.