Fresh from finishing second in the Africa Cup Sevens, and Olympic qualifiers in Tunisia over the weekend, Kenya Lionesses are banking on next year's Challenger Series to realize their dream for Paris 2024.
The Challenger Series is an opportunity for Dennis Mwanja's charges to fine-tune their preparations ahead of the Olympic repechage in June next year in Monaco.
The Lionesses are pitted against China, Poland, and Uruguay as part of the series, where the winner gets promoted to the World Seven Series.
Head coach Dennis Mwanja expressed confidence that his young charges can still qualify for the Paris Olympics next year.
"I believe with support from the union and the Ministry of Sports, we can still qualify for the Olympics as long as we prepare well,” added Mwanja
The KCB assistant coach said he is delighted with the performance of the girls. " The team is a mix of youth and experience and I am proud of the girls," he said.
He said players like Sharon Auma, Phoebe Akinyi, Judith Ouma, and Diana Awino are already causing ripples in the squad yet they are hardly one year old in the team. Grace Okulu is equally very young because she started age-grade rugby at the tender age of five or seven years in Nakuru. Janet Okello, who has been in the team for so long as the captain, leads the experienced players in the squad.
The Lionesses lost to South Africa 12-7 in a nervy tense final in Monastir, Tunisia, and the former Kenya Sevens international believes there is room for improvement ahead of the repechage and other tournaments.
The coach explained that they lost to South Africa on a technicality. “When you get to a final, attention to detail and decision-making is key. However, when the pressure was turned on by the South Africans, we could not counter punch and that for me was the difference between the two teams during the match," he explained.
The Lionesses had made light work of Uganda 27-0 in the semifinals and beat Zambia 27-0, Ghana 41-0, and Madagascar 20-17 in preliminary Pool B matches.
