By Oscar Pilipili

Kenya Prisons are weighing options on participating in the seventh leg of Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) National League, which comes in less than one week and FIVB World Women’s Clubs Championships scheduled for Doha, Qatar, on October 13-19.

Prisons coach David Lung’aho conceded that the league fixtures, which will be held in Eldoret on October 5, are very close to the World Women’s Clubs Championships and thus poses challenge to his team, which is traveling to Doha for their third time since the event was re-introduced four years ago.

Lung’aho said:  “It would be tricky for us to participate in the seventh round of the league competition because it’s very close to the World Championships.”

“Prisons have one match (against Nairobi Water) to end the league and one available option is to request the KVF to let us play this fixture in Nairobi to avoid worn out of our players.”

Honour fixtures

“It’s very important to honour league fixtures but international assignments are equally significant considering that we’re African representatives in Doha,” he said.

“We hope the KVF would listen to our side of the story but if they insist that we travel to Eldoret then we shall see what to do,” Lung’aho said.

Prisons participated in the sixth round of the competition held at Shanzu Teachers College in Mombasa six days ago where they won all their three league matches.

But the African and National champions skipped the KVF Challenge Cup tournament played over two days to avoid possible injuries on players.

Strong winds

While other teams were participating in the Challenge Cup, Prisons pitched camp at the beach where they engaged in muscle building training.

Lung’aho said: “The winds at Shanzu were very strong and we felt participating in the Challenge Cup would not help us much in training for the World Championships.”

“We therefore opted to train at the sandy beach which is very important in muscle building,” he said.

Prisons play Lancheras de Catana of Puerto Rica in opening match in FIVB World Women’s Clubs Championships at Aspire Dome in Doha Qatar on October 13 and complete their pool fixtures with date against Fernebahce of Turkey four days later.

World Women’s Clubs Championships involve six clubs that won continental titles last season.

Participating teams are: Rabita Baku (Azerbaijan), Bohai Bank (China) and Sollys/Nestle (Brazil) who are grouped in Pool ‘A’.

Fernerbahce (Turkey), Prisons (Kenya) and Lancheras de Catana (Puerto Rico) play under Pool ‘B’.

Prisons resumed training yesterday after the tour of Mombasa.