KBF ready for 2023-2024 season full of world and local action

Kenya’s Hilda Indasi in action against Scotland during their women 3x3 basketball match at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. [File]

National men's and women’s basketball 3x3 teams will leave today for the Red Bull World championship set to be hosted in Serbia from Friday.

Sponsored by Red Bull, Mathew Kibet, Derrick Olang, James Mwangi and Kenya Morans captain Griffin Ligare will done the red and white Kenyan jersey’s for the men’s side while Agneta Kambua, Beryl Aoko, Everlyne Diana  and Ashley Minayo from the women’s side.

The four-day Red Bull half court world championship, will have three countries representing with Kenya participating in the event.

Additionally, Kenya’s men and women under 23 years 3x3 will this month represent the country in the world championship in Poland.

The championship is expected to kick off from September 27 to October 1 in Poland.

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) chairman Paul Otula said Kenya and Egypt both qualified for the world championship after tying during the qualifiers.

“Currently, the 3x3 U23 Men and Women’s teams are in non-residential camp in preparation for the U23 3x3 World Cup to be held in Lublin, Poland from Sept 27 to Oct 1st 2023,” he said.

Kenya will compete at the open men and women as well as the U21/U17 Africa Cup in Cairo, Egypt in December where they will be aiming for the Gold in order to make it to the Olympic Universality Tournament.

Otula said Kenya is currently ranked 6 in Africa and 32 in the World with our U23 ranked 2nd in Africa and 16th Globally.

“The achievements reflect our commitment to the growth and development of basketball on both national and international levels,” said Otula.

Otula said the 3x3 team is in the run up to qualification to the Olympic Universality Tournament to be held at a venue to be confirmed in 2024 for teams that potentially qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“The U23 Women’s team were crowned silver medalists at the Africa Beach games in Tunisia in June 2023 while the U23 Men & Women’s teams are just from participating in the Africa U23 Northern Conference Championships in Algiers, Algeria where the country finished 2nd after Egypt,’ he said.