Hockey: National women’s hockey team dish walkover after arriving for AFCON late

Kenya national women's hockey team at City Park.[Courtesy-KHU]

National women’s hockey team have a hill to climb if they are to progress to the knock out round of the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations after dishing out a walk over on Tuesday.

Africa Hockey Federation had scheduled Kenya to play against hosts Ghana from 11am East African time but the Jacky Mwangi coached ladies team failed to show up on time at the Theodosia Okoh Hockey Stadium.

This is after Kenya hockey teams left the country late and arrived late in Accra, Ghana.

Both the women’s and men’s hockey teams left aboard an Ethiopian Airline flight at 5am early Tuesday morning at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia before connecting to the West African nation

They arrived in Ghana just after 2pm EAT, the same time the ladies were mean to take on Ghana prompting African Hockey Federation to award Ghana three points with three goals.

Ghana who are in Pool B together with Zambia, Kenya and Nigeria, have accumulated a total of four points from the two matches with five goals following a 2-2 draw against Nigeria for their opener.

Zambia and Kenya are third and fourth with no points.

The Kenyan ladies must now win their matches against Zambia and Nigeria on Wednesday and Thursday respectively if they are to progress to the next round.

Only the top two teams advancing to the semis.

Kenyan teams were set to depart last Saturday but failed after the Sports Fund board had not approved their budget and the women's team missed their opening match on Monday against Zambia, which has now been rescheduled to Wednesday.