Thunder intensify preparations for 2026 BAL challenge

National champions Nairobi City Thunder are gearing up for their second appearance at the prestigious Basketball Africa League (BAL).

They are among 12 teams that will be battling for eight tickets to the 2026 BAL season finale set for May 22-31 at the BK Arena in Kigali, Rwanda.

Thunder, who made history by being the first Kenyan side to qualify for the continent’s top men’s club competition, are keen to improve on last season’s performance and qualify for the play-offs.

Despite having exited the 2025 season at the group stage in the Nile Conference, team manager Bernet Ojay says that they are looking forward to a successful season.

“We had an eye-opening experience on our debut and carried lessons home that are helping us prepare for the upcoming challenge. Our main objective is to seal a play-offs slot because we want to push ourselves to the highest level possible,” Ojay said.

With BAL having announced changes that will see the group phase have two conferences instead of three in previous editions, Ojay said they are now training with the new format in mind.

The sixth BAL season will begin at the end of March with two groups of six teams each.

The last five editions were played in three conferences of four teams each; Kalahari, Sahara and Nile. The Kalahari conference set for the Sunbet Arena in Pretoria, South Africa will tip off on March 27 and run through to April 5.

It will be followed by the Sahara Conference set for April 24 to May 3 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex in Rabat, Morocco. Thunder will know their six opponents from a pool of 11 among them debutants Dar City from Tanzania who are beneficiaries of a wild card having finished third at the Elite 16 East Division contest. The Kenyans qualified as the division’s finalists alongside Johannesburg Giants who they beat in the preliminaries and final at the tournament staged at the Kasarani Indoor Arena.  

Others are Club Africain of Tunisia, Petro De Luanda of Angola, Egyptian giants Al Ahly Sporting Club, Senegal’s ASC Ville de Dakar, APR of Rwanda, Nigeria’s Lagos Legends, FUS Rabat as well as Elite 16 West Division finalists Jeunesse Club d’Abidjan from Ivory and Al-Ahly Benghazi from Libya.

Al-Ahly Benghazi will be hoping to advance to the play-offs and remain on course to retaining the title won by their Al Ahli Tripoli compatriots who won the 2025 title.