It was a false start for Team Kenya in the Paris Olympic Games with fencer Alexandra Ndolo, swimmer Ridhwan Abubakar and Shujaa all facing early exits on Saturday.
Ndolo, making history as Kenya’s first Olympic fencer, ranked 14th in the 2023/24 season, the highest-ranked African to secure her slot for the Paris Games.
Ndolo bowed out after a heart-breaking 13-12 defeat against Ukrainian Olena Kryvystka in what was nothing short of a nail-biting encounter.
Just the night before, Ndolosaid on social media, “I intend to make every second count.”
Hong Kong’s Vivian Man Wai claimed the title with Auriane Mallo of France and Hungary’s Eszter Muhari settling for silver and bronze respectively.
After representing Germany for 15 years and winning bronze at the World Fencing Championships, she switched allegiance to Kenya in 2022 to honour her late father, who was raised in the East African nation.
"I feel like even when it has been hard, he's with me every step of the way," Ndolo shared
Kenya aimed to become the third African nation to win an Olympic fencing medal, following Egypt’s Alaaeldin Abouelkassem (silver, London 2012) and Tunisia’s Ines Boubakri (bronze, Rio 2016).
Abubakar on the other hand finished fourth in the men’s 400m freestyle in heat 1 with a time of 4:05.14 behind Costa Rica’s Alberto Vega (4:03.14), Raekwon Noel of Guyana (4:02.29) and Morocco’s Ilias El Fallaki (4:01.59).
The results ranked Abubakar 36th overall with Germany’s Lukas Martens (3:44.13), Australia’s Elijah Winnington (3:44.87) and Oliver Klemet (3:45.75) of Germany securing the podium finishes.
The UK-based Kenyan swimmer Abubakar qualified for the Olympics after lowering his national record from 4:05.65 to 4:04.39 in Croatia last month. This earned him a total of 730 World Aquatic points and a ticket to the Paris Olympics.
Abubakar was hoping to fill the shoes of Kenyan great Jason Dunford who represented the country in London 2012 and Beijing 2008.
The national Sevens rugby team, Shujaa, also had a dismal performance at the games finishing ninth after a 10-5 victory over Samoa in the ninth-place playoff.
Shujaa did not record any wins in the group stages where they were grouped with Australia, Olympic bronze medallists Australia and Samoa.
In their first group match, they suffered a 31-12 loss to Argentina followed by a 21-7 defeat to Australia and a final 26-0 loss to Samoa.
Shujaa stunned South Africa with a 17-12 victory last year at the Africa men’s Sevens in Harare, Zimbabwe to book their slots for the Olympics.