Beach Volleyball: Kenya eliminated from World Championships

Kenya has been eliminated from the ongoing FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championships in Italy after losing the last of its pool games on Monday 13 June to Poland.

The pair of Gaudencia Makokha and Brackcides Agala went down 21-8 and 21-17 to Polish duo of Kinga Wajtasik and Kociolek Katarzyna in match number three in Group L and now exit the competition after losing all three of their games.

Hope

Kenya needed to win on Monday to at least remain with the hope of qualifying for the knockout round as one of the best third-placed teams in the pool stages.

But that wasn’t the case at the Foro Italico in Rome as the seasoned Poles showed their might by dominating in the attacks, blocks and service departments to earn their second win and progress to the last 32 round.

Poland tallied 27 attacks to Kenya’s 14 and put up six serves to Kenya’s three. Their two blocks were one more than what Agala and Makokha, representing Kenya at only the country’s second appearance on the world stage, managed.

Limited preparations

Kenya’s disappointing exit is partly due to the limited time that Agala and Makokha had to prepare together. The duo trained just for three days before leaving the country for Italy with Agala’s participation at the African Clubs Championship in Tunisia in May with her club Kenya Prisons a factor.

Despite the exit, the girls will hope that their showing will have done enough to see them scale up the FIVB rankings that currently have them as the top-ranked team from the continent at number 130 globally.

They now turn their sights to the upcoming Common Wealth Games to be hosted in Birmingham from July 28.