Kenya to go hard against DR Congo in Thursday’s Africa Women’s Handball Championship
Kenya Women National Handball team Manager Caroline Kusa is confident that Kenya will bounce back strongly when they face DR Congo tomorrow in their second match of the ongoing Africa Women's Handball Championship hosted in Cameroon.
Featuring in the championship for the first time, the Good Luck Girls as the women's national handball team is known, started their campaign on a wrong footing, going down 40-16 to hosts Cameroon on Tuesday evening but Kusa is hoping for the best in tomorrow's match.
"I believe in my team and I know they will make us proud. I don't want to give them any pressure since they all know what brought them to Cameroon and what to expect if they get into the medal bracket. The first match might have been bad but it doesn't define the rest of our matches. So we will go hard, have fun and make a statement against DR Congo," hopeful Kusa told People Sport.
Reflecting on the Cameroon defeat, the team manager said that they faced a strong and experienced Cameroonian side who have been featuring in the tournament for over 40 years, making it difficult for debutant Kenyan girls to match them.
"If you have gone through the profile of the Cameroon team, you will learn that they are very much exposed, they have taken part in this championship since 1979 and have been performing really well. This is the first time my girls have come to this competition and as the team manager, I am really proud of them because of how they played in the match. Cameroonians do this as their profession and we expected a tough game, so my girls played their heart out and fought as hard as they could," she remarked.
Kusa said that there's no injury in the team and she's looking forward to tomorrow's match against DRC in a match scheduled for 6 pm local time at the Yaoundé Multipurpose Sports Complex.
"We don't have any injury in the team and in fact, I am proud that one of my girls, Gladys Chilo was crowned as the Man of the Match against Cameroon, and this shows what the Kenyan handball team is capable of doing if only they get the exposure that they need. So, we are going to play with more speed in our next match, something that we avoided in the previous match because the Cameroonian team is faster, taller, and experienced. We have several tactics that we trained both for the attack and defence and we hope that we will be able to apply a good number of them if not all in our next game against DR Congo," concluded Kusa.
