Hello

Your subscription is almost coming to an end. Don’t miss out on the great content on Nation.Africa

Ready to continue your informative journey with us?

Hello

Your premium access has ended, but the best of Nation.Africa is still within reach. Renew now to unlock exclusive stories and in-depth features.

Reclaim your full access. Click below to renew.

Subscribe for a month to get full access

Help women’s hockey team

logo

By  Editorial

We commend the national women’s hockey team, the Blades, for securing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) scholarship worth Sh6.5 million ($50,000) for over four years.

The funds will enable the Blades launch their qualification campaign for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games early even though more funds and talent search and development will be required to actualise the team’s dream.

Ideally, the team will get Sh1.62 million annually, an amount that is arguably a drop in the ocean considering the extensive work that goes into a team’s preparations for international assignments.

Also Read

It’s the National Olympic Committee of Kenya’s (NOC-K’s) wish to have more team events at the Olympics hence the support from IOC.

Basically, the funds will mainly be channelled towards the team’s technical assistance hence Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) must explore other avenues of drawing in more partners.

Blades have come close to qualifying for the games several times but South Africa have always reigned supreme. For instance, they lost to South Africa to settle for silver during the 2007 and 2011 Africa Olympic Qualifiers.

The current team that is full of youngsters has the potential to not only qualify for the 2028 Olympics, but also upstaging South Africa to bring their continental dominance to an end.

However, that will require an astute blueprint from KHU that must get out of its comfort zone and stop depending on the government for funding and support. The team will also need outside exposure to have a chance.

Vibrant national leagues and good facilities contribute immensely to the development of the game, but sadly Kenyan leagues have for long lacked that spark, having gone for long without sponsors. The country’s top hockey facility, the City Park Hockey Stadium, is an eyesore, having been overused and neglected.

In 2020, KHU came up with an ambitious plan geared towards rehabilitating City Park to international standards at a cost of Sh150 million but the plan went cold.

Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.

In the headlines