Kenya opens Tokyo Deaflympics with women’s basketball and men’s handball

The Kenyan women’s deaf basketball team will on Sunday (November 16) step onto the court at the Ota-City General Gymnasium to face Australia in their opening Group A match at the 2025 Tokyo Summer Deaflympics.

They will do so with confidence, drawing strength from their experience in previous Games.

This will be Kenya’s third appearance in women’s basketball at the Deaflympics, following their participation in the 2017 and 2022 editions held in Samsun, Turkey, and Caxias do Sul, Brazil, respectively.

The women’s basketball match between Kenya and Australia will start at 10:30 am local time (4:30 am in Kenya).

Later on Sunday, at 4 pm local time (10 am in Nairobi), the Kenyan deaf men’s handball team will launch their Group A campaign against Serbia at the Komazawa Olympic Park General Sports Ground Indoor Stadium.

These two sports are among the five in which Kenya will compete in at the 25th edition of the quadrennial multi-sport event, which runs until November 26.

The others are athletics, swimming and golf. In Group A of the women's basketball tournament, Kenya will face giants Lithuania and Italy, while Group B consists of Greece, Ukraine and Japan.

Strong performance

Group “C” members are Chinese Taipei, Turkey, the United States of America, and Poland. Kenya’s women’s deaf coach, Mary Chepkoi, said that although it will be the first time they will be facing Australia, she expects her charges to showcase a strong performance.

Apart from the experience of competing in two previous Deaflympics, Chepkoi said she draws confidence from the good preparations they had in Nairobi and individual player brilliance. 

“We have never played Australia before, but we believe we have what it takes to face them,” said Chepkoi, who is also the coach of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) Women’s basketball team, nicknamed “Lynx”. 

She singled out Mercy Mideva and Captain Maureen Awuor as some of the key players in her squad. 

“Mercy Mideva is a good three-point shooter; she is good on transition, while Auma is versatile,” said the coach.

Since the Australian players are tall, Chepkoi emphasised the need for her girls to box their opponents out to get the rebounds.

Kenya heads into the match buoyed by their maiden win in the Deaflympics in Brazil in 2022. In that encounter, Kenya defeated Brazil 98-11 and were ranked seventh globally. 

In men’s handball, where Kenya are making their second appearance in the Games after participating in the previous edition in Brazil, coach Jack Habert said Serbia will not be able to beat them if his players play according to instructions. 

Defending champions Croatia and France are the other teams Kenya will face in Group “A”. Group “B” consists of Japan, Germany, Turkey and Brazil. Kenya is banking on players’ experience and familiarity with one another to achieve their target of a podium finish.

For the past two seasons, the team has been competing against the top sides in the Kenya Handball Federation Men’s National League, where, against the odds, they have pulled off several impressive wins, finishing 20th out of 25 teams in the last campaign. This experience, Habert believes, gives them an edge over other teams in Deaflympics. 

“We have been preparing for this Deaflympics since the last one in Brazil in 2022.  All the teams in the Deaflympics are good. It is upon us to be tactical to make sure we don’t give them the chance to play well,” said the coach. 

Kenya’s Group fixtures

Women’s basketball (Ota-City General Gymnasium)

Sunday

Australia v Kenya 10:30am (4:30am Kenyan time)

Monday 

Kenya v Italy 3:30pm (9:30am in Kenya)

Wednesday (9:30am Local)

Kenya v Lithuania 10:30am (4:30am Kenyan time)

Men’s handball (Komawaza Park General Sports Ground Indoor Stadium)

Sunday

Serbia v Kenya 6pm (12 pm Kenyan time)

Monday

Kenya v Croatia 9pm (3pm Kenyan time)

Wednesday

France v Kenya (4am Kenyan time)