• Too picked a nasty knee injury on November 22 during the national league playoffs at Kasarani.
•The provisional squads converge in Shanzu, Mombasa tomorrow and will be training at the Big Tree beach.
Image: COURTESY
The 2019 All Africa Games beach volleyball silver medalist Naomi Too has been sidelined for the Africa Olympic qualifiers Round One set for between January 8 and 13 in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
Too, who plays for Kenya Pipeline alongside her partner Gaudencia Makokha in indoor volleyball, picked a nasty knee injury on November 22 during the national league play-offs at Kasarani, forcing her to be hospitalised.
She has since been discharged from hospital and has been undergoing physiotherapy and light gym work and she is expected to return for a review next week.
“Right now, I’m doing well, just some light gym and physiotherapy and I feel better. The doctor has not ruled out surgery so I’ll know the next course of action when I return for a review on December 10th,” said Too.
Too is the second beach volleyball player to pick a serious injury in two months after Gladys Wangui fractured her right leg tibia bone in training.
However, head coach Patrick Owino said Too is ruled out of for the Dar-es-Salaam competitions as she will be going under the knife to correct the damages in her knee.
In preparations for the qualification, national team Owino has assembled provisional teams of six players in the women’s team and a seven-man squad in the men's category.
The men’s Olympic qualification showpiece will go down in Entebbe, Uganda between December 18 and 22.
The men’s provisional squad drew Prisons’ veteran Ibrahim Oduor, Donald Mchete (Mombasa), General Service Unit’s Cornelius Kiplagat and Brian Melly, Kenya Ports Authority duo of Jimmy Mwaniki and Enock Omogeni and Oman-based veteran Evans Bera.
They converge in Shanzu, Mombasa tomorrow and will be training at the Big Tree beach. The women’s lineup consists of Kenya Prisons trio of the evergreen Brackcides Agala, Loise Tarus and Yvonne Wavinya; KCB's pair of Phoscah Kasisi and Metrine Nabwile and Makokha.
The qualifications will be played in three rounds with the second and the third set for February and June 2020, where the winner in each gender will grab the sole ticket to the Tokyo Olympics. The first and second runners up at the continental qualifications will have the last chance to qualify for the quadrennial sports extravaganza at the World Championships.