Seven junior golfers will represent Kenya at the 2025 All-Africa Junior Team Championship (AAJTC) in Tunisia.
The team left the country on Monday for the tournament, which will run until April 27. The country will field a team of four boys and three girls.
The AAJTC is the top junior golf event in Africa and attracts great competition across the continent.
The boys' team comprises Junaid Manji, Tsevi Soni (Sigona), Nathan Mwangi (Karen), and Justin Ngeera (Vet Lab Sports Club), while the girls' team has Belinda Wanjiru (Vet Lab), Hazel Kuria and Audrey Gachora (Muthaiga).
John Van Liefland and C.J Wangai will coach the team, while Vincent Mukiri, the Junior Golf Foundation (JGF) President, will be head of delegation and Millicent Mello (team manager).
The team was selected from the provisional national junior team, which consisted of 12 boys and 10 Girls, based on training and ranking. The players used the NCBA Kenya Junior Strokeplay Championship and the Kabete Junior Open tournaments as a build-up for the Africa show.
The team seeks to improve the performance in South Africa, where the girls' team finished second out of eleven while the boys finished fourth out of 15 teams. This year, Kenyans are seeking a podium finish for both the girls and boys teams in a bid to qualify for the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup in Japan.
Ministry of Sports Principal Secretary, Elijah Mwangi, flagged off the team at the Royal Nairobi and congratulated the seven juniors for making it to the final team.
“The AAJTC presents a gilt-edged opportunity for Kenyan juniors to showcase their skills at the highest level in Africa. The Department of Sports under the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports is fully committed to supporting junior sports, and we look forward to strengthening our collaboration with the Junior Golf Foundation to grow junior golfing events in the country,” he said.
He added: "This team here is ready to fly the Kenyan flag high. Looking at the journey they have travelled to be here, we are looking at winners, who will impact many other juniors to follow in their footsteps in the years to come."
The JGF President, Vincent Mukiri, is confident that with the intensive training the team has undergone, they will meet their goals. “We are going to Tunisia with a plan to fly the country's flag high. We want to finish first or second and qualify for the 2025 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup. This way, we will open up more opportunities for our juniors to compete at the highest level as they also seek sports and education scholarships locally, regionally, and abroad,” said Mukiri.
