KENYA’S MISSED CHANCE: Women's national hockey team's woes follow them to World League in Uruguay

Kenya Glennis Namasake(l) and Ghana Amestina Cofie fight for the ball when they played World League round one at Citypark ,Nairobi. Kenya won 1-0. ON 06/09/14 PHOTO: JENIPHER WACHIE

The national women's hockey team is in despair in the on-going International Hockey Federation (FIH) World League Two in Montevideo, Uruguay. This follows FIH’s decision to award their opponents walkovers as they failed to make it to the South American country in good time to honour their matches.

They are yet to play a match as the competition entered day four and are still hopeful FIH will allow them to play Azerbaijan. They arrived in Montevideo late for their tie against Trinidad and Tobago, which prompted FIH to award the latter five goals and three points.

In what Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) chairman Nashon Randiek described as unclear circumstances, Kenya were denied a chance to play against France despite making it to the pitch, which also resulted in a walkover.

Randiek said FIH was yet to communicate to the union to shed light on their decision to award France the points.

“The coaches informed me of the development and I immediately wrote to FIH to find out what was going, but they are yet to respond.”

He added that the team had logistical problems that saw them leave Sao Paulo on two different flights, making it impossible to honour their match. Prior to their departure, KHU had blamed the Government for not releasing funds in good time.

KHU had earlier written to FIH seeking a possible rescheduling of their opening match against France, which the world body granted. This saw their tie against France moved to Monday evening, but their problems began when they did not play Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday.

Now the team’s participation hangs in the balance and there are fears their trip to Uruguay might have been in vain. The FIH World League series is part of the road to the Rio 2016 Olympics and the teams that excel will automatically qualify for the quadrennial event. The Kenyan girls qualified for League Two after they defeated Ghana 1-0 and Tanzania 17-0 in the League One competition that the country hosted in September last year.

Meanwhile, hosts Uruguay hammered the Dominican Republic 5-1 to remain unbeaten in their pool A encounter. Italy thrashed Mexico 5-0 in another group A match to secure their first victory of the tournament.

Kenya are at the bottom of group B without a point, while Azerbaijan are at the top with six.