Bon voyage! Early flight back home as swimmer, fencer and ‘Shujaa’ say adieu to Paris

Team Kenya’s roster was whittled down considerably yesterday with swimmer Ridhwan Mohammed, fencer Alexandra Ndolo and the men’s sevens rugby team “Shujaa” completing their assignments here medal-less, but leaving with their heads held high.

“Shujaa” finished on a positive note in ninth place overall after outwitting their Group ‘B’ conquerors Samoa 10-5 in the play-off for ninth and 10th place.

On Thursday, the team had secured a thrilling 19-14 victory against Uruguay, thanks to a late try by the youngest player on the team, 21-year-old Patrick Odongo.

At noon yesterday, Ndolo drew a first, becoming Kenya’s pioneer in Olympic fencing, a feat even the International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach would applaud.

Because Bach is an Olympic fencer himself, having bagged gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and also at the World Championships in Buenos Aires in 1977.

German-born Ndolo, who represented Kenya first at the 2022 World Cup in Estonia, bowed out 13-12 against Ukrainian Olena Kryvystka in the women’s Individual Epee which attracted sudden death play after a 12-12 tie.

The Cologne University alumna matched the Ukrainian hit-by-hit but succumbed in the second minute of overtime play.

In swimming, Mombasa-born UK student Ridhwan Abubakar bowed out after having thrown down the gauntlet, leading at 150 metres in his 400 metres freestyle heat but fading out in the latter stages to finish fourth in four minutes, 05.14, ranking him 36th overall. Morocco’s Ilias El Fallaki won the heat in 4:01.59.

Even as Shujaa bowed out of the sevens medal hunt at the Stade de France, they will leave on a high as Australia’s sevens rugby team coach John Maneti said he believes Kenya’s return to the world sevens rugby series will enrich the competition, describing Kenyan players as “talented” and boasting “fantastic physicality.”

Maneti spoke as Kenya’s head coach Kevin Wambua also drew positives despite his charges’ three group stage losses to highly-ranked Argentina (12-31), Australia (7-21) and Samoa (0-26) on Wednesday and Thursday before bouncing back with back-to-back victories over Uruguay and Samoa in the play-offs.

Corey Toole, Nathan Lawson and James Turner scored tries for Australia against “Shujaa” while Anthony Mboya touched down and converted for Kenya.

Dietrich Roache kicked over the three conversions as the Kangaroos stablised after Kenya had tied the game at 7-7.

“I saw Kenya at the Repecharge series and I was quite nervous going into the game,” Maneti revealed.

“I know they are very good athletes and if they got going first, it would be very difficult for us to get out of the game. I had watched them closely this morning both live and in the review.

“They have been really impressive, their physicality is fantastic, and they have the ability to recycle the ball and transition, and when they turned the ball over, the attack was exceptional,” the Aussie tactician said.

“There’s a couple of players in the team with exceptional speed… they are very important to the series, because they have been such strong team for a long time and we are happy to see them back in the series.”

Kenya made it back to the World Sevens Series in May after defeating Germany in the final of the relegation and play-off final in Madrid.

On Thursday, an extra-time try by young Daystar University speedster Patrick Odongo saw “Shujaa” overcome Uruguay 19-14 in their ninth to 12th game play-off match that was level at the final gong after Baltazar Amaya’s try and a conversion by Guillermo Lijtenstein tied it at 14-14.

As Kenya and Samoa finished ninth and 10th, Uruguay pushed Japan to the bottom spot of the 12-team tournament beating them 21-10 in the play-off for 11th and 12th place.

Argentina’s “Pumas” mauled USA 19-0 to finish seventh with New Zealand beating Ireland to fifth place after a 17-7 victory.

Hosts France set up a final against Fiji last night shocking South Africa 19-5, perhaps an apt revenge for the Springboks’ 29-28 victory over Les Bleus in the final of last year’s World Cup at the same venue.

Fiji blasted Australia 31-7 to stay on course to defending their gold medal.

South Africa – who, ironically, made it here on a wild card – had stunned New Zealand 14-7 to reach the semi-finals. Coach Wambua, meanwhile, observed that Kenya will need a steady production line to sustain the rigours of elite sevens rugby.

Maneti said Australia have been preparing their squad for the Olympics for the last three years, while Kenya had just month to spruce themselves up for Paris.

“The biggest thing we can take from this tournament is that we need a feeder programme,” Wambua told Nation Sport. “It’s very hard to teach basic skills at the top level in the national team… we need to get a feeder system and select a few players with potential, teach them the basics so that when they step into the national team, it will be just a matter of a tactical and technical approach of coaching to them.”

“We need to do a talent ID and get a few boys who can be in camp and we can be closely monitoring them and seeing how they will break into the team so that the team has a steady flow of athletes,” he envisaged.

The coach also pleaded for consistency for the junior rugby team, “the Morans” to help create competition for national team slots.

“We want to make sure that the Morans programme is running throughout the year so that we can build some depth and also build some competition so that the guys on the top remain honest and don’t remain complacent.”

He also admitted that inexperience cost his side here in Paris.

“We were playing against people who have played in the World Cup and in multiple seasons in the HSBC Sevens series….

“Looking at our squad, three quarters are first time Olympians and that shows the potential of the team. For me it’s now to just encourage them and continue demanding more from them…

“We need to play consistently against these teams for 14 minutes, not 10 or less minutes…,” he observed.