Baptism of fire for Shehzana as she faces champ

Shehzana Anwar’s reward for booking a slot in the Rio Olympics is a pairing with defending champion Ki Bo-Bae of South Korea.

Anwar kicked off her Olympic campaign on Friday by taking part in the women’s individual ranking, but it did not go to plan hence the reason she was paired to play against the Olympic champion on Monday.

The Kenyan who made history by winning gold at the Africa qualifiers in Namibia in February after beating experienced archers was ranked in 62nd spot after the ranking was done at Sambodromo grounds.

Anwar, who is fondly known as Kuki by her friends, said she was overwhelmed by the pressure of taking part at the Olympics for the first time but said it was a good experience.

“Ranking is always the toughest to be honest, since elimination is based on the ranking. It was tough, I will be honest on that.

“For me, making it to the Olympics is a bigger achievement and being here is the best experience and it’s also a learning curve and now I know the pressure that comes with being an Olympian. I am now looking forward to the competition on Monday,” she said.

She says she will just play her game on Monday and see how far she will go, but she is happy that at least Kenyans will know she will have represented the country well and even carried the flag for Team Kenya during the opening ceremony on Monday.

“I just can’t believe that I was picked to carry Kenya’s flag. I was just happy to march past and wave to my family on tv but this is even beyond my wildest dreams that they will be seeing me even more clearly as I will be waving the flag,” she said.

Apart from the Africa qualifiers in Namibia, Kuki also took part at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India where she managed a semi-quarters slot.

Elsewhere, New Zealand made mince meat of Kenya’s Lionesses as rugby made a return to the Olympic Games after 92 years.

New Zealand beat Kenya 52-0 . On the evidence of their performance, few sides are likely to be able to cope with the strength and pace of New Zealand either over the three days of competitionafter thumping Kenya.

New Zealand’s try-scoring phenomenon Portia Woodman took only 30 seconds to get on the board.