Kenya's pair of Naomi Too and Gaudencia Makokha won the country's first medal at the African Games after settling for silver in Rabat, Morocco yesterday.
Too and Makokha went down to Egypt in straight sets of 13-21 and 15-21 in the beach volleyball final.
This is Kenya’s first time to play in the finals of beach volleyball at the continental sports extravaganza.
Coach Patrick Owino commended the duo for getting to the finals at the 12th edition tournament, stating that this has been their goal all along. He said the North Africans were worthy opponents.
“The game was good but we lost to a better side. We committed a number of unforced errors which cost us the game. All the same, we are satisfied with our performance,” said Owino.
“The tournament has been a success for us. In 2015, we were eliminated in semis and we were determined to get to the finals this time around and I am happy we did! The girls gave a good account of themselves,” added the tactician. Both Too and Makokha were part of the Kenyan Indoor volleyball lineup who won a gold medal in 2015.
In the 2015 edition of AAG, Kenya finished fourth after losing to Rwanda in the third-place beach volleyball playoffs.
On their way to the finals, the Kenyan duo flushed out Mozambique from the title contention with a straight-sets of 21-18 and 21-15. Makokha and Too were tactically endowed as compared to their Portuguese-speaking Southern African adversaries in the semis.
Kenya were responsible for waylaying both 2015 finalists Mozambique and holders Nigeria in the quarterfinals and semis respectively.
The Kenyan win came easy with the pair garnering points from kill serves, blocking and several unforced errors from their opponents. Makokha and Too had good court coverage and took advantage of the Mozambicans’ lapses in the same skill, delayed position recovery and wasteful serves.
“We planned for the game based on how we had watched Mozambique in their previous matches. We, therefore, won without much struggle. We again plan to employ the same strategy for the finals,” noted Owino.
In the second penultimate face-off, Egypt frustrated islanders Mauritius’ campaign with a straight-sets whipping in an identical score of 21-19 and 21-19.
