Clinical Kenya too good for Liberia in wheelchair African Basketball Championship

After their ladies’ counterparts trounced Liberia on Wednesday at the Pavilhao Multiuso de Kilamba, Kenya's men also returned the same favor to the same country, thrashing them 72-13, their final game of the just-concluded Africa 5×5 wheelchair basketball championships in Luanda, Angola.

Speaking after their game's final whistle, Kenya's captain, Ian Kanji, said he is proud of his charges and is coming back home head high and full of lessons.

"Though Liberia was no match for us, we really gave in with a good shift. We were pooled in group A, with all top-ranked African teams, especially the Arabs from the North," Kanji quipped.

"Senegal, on the other side, has the advantage of having big guys who play professionally in Europe; in Kenya, we don't have a professional wheelchair basketball league, while others like Morocco and Egypt are top in sporting infrastructure. For South Africa, taking their team for a three-week camp in Spain tells you how serious they are taking this tournament," Kanji finalized.

The final game for Kenya against Liberia was a battle of who would finish at either seventh or eighth, a game that was more of a training session than a real battle for the Maurice Ouma, Sarah Libese, and Nicholas Ngumbi-guided outfit, leading by half time 37-7 and finally completing the ordeal 72-13, full time.

Kenya's men have now completed their African wheelchair basketball championship at position seven, while the ladies finished at position five out of six, though their final game was on Wednesday against Liberia.

Senegal beat Algeria, 51-48, to clinch the men's bronze medal, while in the ladies' category.

The first final was the women's, South Africa, the AmaWheela girls who were up against Algeria, but lost 39-22, while the other final saw their  men, the AmaWheela boys take on Morocco at 7:30 pm local time, sadly also losing the tie 59-42, an affair that now has the two north African nations get a direct ticket to represent the continent in the upcoming International Wheelchair Basketball Federation ( IWBF) 2026 World Championships in Ottawa, Canada 9-19th September, Kenya sadly missing out, but coming home with full of lessons learnt.