Elizabeth Wanyama calls for improvement ahead of Algeria's Grand Prix
Volleyball and Handball
By
Rodgers Eshitemi
| Jul 02, 2015
National women volleyball's libero Elizabeth Wanyama has urged her teammates to improve on their performance ahead of the second leg of the FIVB World Grand Prix that serves off tomorrow in Algiers, Algeria.
The nine-time African champions got two points from the first leg in Mexico after beating the hosts and lost to leaders Peru (nine points) and fourth-placed Colombia (six points).
Kenya, who are in Pool Q, will start their campaign against Mexico tomorrow, then face Australia on Saturday, before wrapping up their Algiers tour with a clash against their perennial rivals, Algeria on Sunday.
The team, which arrived in Algeria on Tuesday evening, held their first training yesterday and the award-winning libero, who was criticised for her below-par display, is looking forward to replicate their 2014 performance, where they won all their three matches in Algeria.
“To be frank, I just had a bad day in office in the first leg. Just like any other match in volleyball, you can have bad days and good days as well. In the two matches, against Peru and Colombia, our reception was not that good and it really cost us. But that is now behind us and we must rise to the occasion this weekend,” said Wanyama.
“We have played some of the best teams in the competition and the morale of the team is high. We are confident of repeating last year’s performance.”
Just like the best African libero, head coach David Lung’aho is eyeing a repeat of last year’s performance.
“In the second leg, we will face familiar teams among them our arch-rivals Algeria, Mexico and Australia. We have defeated these teams before and I do not see what should stop us from bagging the nine points,” said Lung’aho.
“It’s sad that we shot ourselves in the foot by showing our competitors our weakness - poor reception - but this should change before we begin the second round. Let us think of our country, our fans back at home and our sponsors.”
Kenya require three wins to make it to the last leg in Australia from July 10.