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Kenya to debut in seven sports at 2025 Tokyo Deaflympics
Kenya Deaf Badminton Team player Joseph Kago trains at Nairobi Jaffery Sports Club in Nairobi on October 1, 2025.
Kenya will debut in seven disciplines at the 2025 Tokyo Summer Deaflympics scheduled for November 15 to 26.
The disciplines are bowling, badminton, swimming, volleyball (women), tennis, table tennis and cycling.
Kenya will also compete in football women, basketball women, handball men, golf and athletics.
The country plans to send 166 athletes to the Games, with athletics again registering the largest contingent at 63, followed by football (23), and volleyball (14).
Basketball will have 12 players while bowling, swimming, table tennis, and tennis will each field eight players.
Golf and badminton have four players each while cycling has two.
Kenya will be making their eighth appearance at the quadrennial multi-sport event since first competing at 1987 edition in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Speaking to Nation Sport, badminton player Teresa Wambui, expressed her delight at the prospects of debuting in the Deaflympics.
“I feel very happy to be among the players who will represent the country internationally in deaf badminton for the first time. My aim is to bring a medal back home,” said the 32-year-old Wambui on the sidelines of the team’s training at Nairobi Jaffrey Sports Club.
Under the guidance
Titus Kiprop, 30, Joseph Kago, 33, and Maryline Wanjiru, 31, are the other players in the badminton team. The team will be under the guidance of former Kenyan top seed in doubles Morgan Kirimi.
The quartet earned their place in the team during the trials held in Mombasa in April.
The trials, Kirimi said, attracted players from 14 counties.
In Tokyo, the players will compete in both the men’s and women’s singles, the men’s and women’s doubles and the mixed doubles.
“My players are very much ready because they have been training for quite a while now,” said Kirimi, who is a BWF-accredited coach.
“My target as a coach is to bring fame to the country. I am hoping to get some medals,” he added. The team trains three times a week at Pumwani School and Nairobi Jaffrey Sports Club.
They have also been sparring against elite players.
“The training has been very intense. We know the competition at the Deaflympics will be tough, so we just have to keep going. Competing with the hearing players has been a good exposure to me because they are better players,” said Wambui, who is a chef by profession.
