Kenya impresses at Special Olympics
Kenya’s representatives to the Special Olympics tournament in South Africa missed out narrowly on the top three spot after going down 4-0 to Ivory Coast in the third place play offs on Friday.
The team, however, was resilient enough to reach the semis of the three days tournament with a convincing 9-0 thrashing of Mauritius in the quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon.
This was not to be the case in the semis though, as the hosts managed to win by a 3-2 margin through post match penalties after managing a barren draw in regulation time.
The team has blamed their loss to Ivory Coast to the long list of injuries that they carried during their match against hosts South Africa in the semis.
According to coach Vince Ombiji, they lost three key players during the match, forcing them to field a weakened team against the West Africans – thus the loss.
“The boys played very well but the injuries caused us the trouble hence the loss,” said Ombiji.
The result left Kenya fourth, finishing behind winners and hosts South Africa, second placed Tanzania and third placed Ivory Coast.
South Africa saw off Kenya’s East African neighbours Tanzania by a slim 3-2 to emerge champions of the inaugural tournament.
