Kenya's fencing queen Ndolo keeps shining, grabs ticket to Paris 2024

Kenyan fencer Alexandra Ndolo reacts after winning the 2023 Senior African Championships at Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in Cairo, Egypt on June 20. [Courtesy]

The last eight days have been epic for Kenyan fencing star Alexandra Ndolo.

Within this period, she has been crowned the African Epee Fencing champion and is assured of a Kenyan ticket to the Paris Olympics.

The Kenyan Fencing queen topped the African charts above Algerian Taleb Ines El Batoul in the contest that ended on June 23. Moroccan Bousfiha Chloe and Egyptian player Hussein Aya placed third. She edged out El Batoul in a 15-5 win at the finals.

Apart from earning her status as the mother of the country's Fencing, Ndolo, 36, got the much-awaited approval to represent Kenya at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board approved her application for a change of nationality from Germany to Kenya. This also happened last week.

"This has been a special week for me. First gold at the African Championships and then I became an official member of the Olympic Team Kenya. Looking forward to the next 13 months," the German-born Kenyan fencer said.

During the 2012 African Fencing Championships (held from June 19-23), Ndolo battled 23 other women Fencers to chalk up the crucial victory as she sought to qualify for the Summer Olympics.

Kenya ranked third in Africa following the one gold medal won by Ndolo at the continental Championships staged at Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in Cairo.

"The IOC Executive Board in a meeting held on 21st June 2023, approved your application for change of nationality to Kenya. This therefore gives Ndolo Alexandra the green light to compete for Team Kenya at the Olympic Games including the Paris 2024 Olympic Games," the National Olympic Committee of Kenya said in a statement last week.

Ndolo, who was born to a Polish mother and a Kenyan father switched citizenship to represent her father's motherland last year.

So, the month of June has success after another for Ndolo who had in May bemoaned what she described as a lack of support and sponsorship by the government.

The lefthander fencer thanked Kenyans and individuals in Germany for supporting her journey to Fencing stardom.

"I wrote history winning Kenya's first-ever gold medal in an international fencing competition and becoming the first-ever continental champion. The flag was raised all the way up

"I couldn't have done it without my team here with me and the countless people back home; both in Kenya and Germany - the ones that are directly connected to fencing, physical health, and mental preparation and the ones who stay by my side and love me as the temperamental, cheeky, adventure-loving human that I am.

"Kenya has officially arrived on the international fencing stage. We did this, let's do even more," Ndolo posted on social media.

Following the impressive show in Egypt, Ndolo is now ranked sixth woman Epee Fencer of all time behind China's Man Wai Vivian, Sera Song (Korea), Marie-Florence Candasammy (France), Nathalie Moellhausen (Brazil) and Anna Kun (Hungary).