Basketball: Loreto long to realise East Africa dreams

[Courtesy]

Limuru Girls’ basketball team have always had a huge dream: to qualify for East Africa secondary school games. 

The Central region champions, who are one of the sides that featured at the Brookside national term one games regularly, have for many years come close to qualifying for East Africa championships but have not made it. They are eager to make their dream of competing at East Africa’s secondary schools a reality.

Having finished fourth at the 2018 national games, they want to go one better. Loreto coach Stephen Muniu said they will build on last year’s performance to glide into the finals and make the national team.

“It has been a learning experience for us as a team and we will build on last year’s performance. We failed to qualify for East Africa games last year but we came back with invaluable lessons that have helped us improve our standards,” Muniu said.

Loreto put up a spirited fight against Kaya Tiwi in last year’s semi-final but lost 29-31 to miss the ticket to the regional games held in Musanze, Rwanda. In Mombasa, they will rely on the services forward Britney Nafula who has been instrumental in their campaign this year as well as Winnie Ouma and Rita Muirui.

They launch their bid in Group B against Nairobi Region’s Buruburu before taking on Meterdei Mua Hills and Kaya Tiwi. They will be out to exert revenge on Buruburu who denied them a podium finish after forcing a slim 53-49 victory in the third-place play-offs.