Kenya bags medals in Taekwondo at African Games

Kenya’s Faith Ogalo and Everlyn Aluoch won silver and bronze respectively in Tae Kwon Do at the ongoing African Games in Rabat, Morocco.

Ogalo won silver in the women’s 73kg category after going down 27-11 to Yassine Hezami of Morocco in the finals held Thursday night at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Sports Complex, Rabat.

Aluoch meanwhile clinched bronze in the women’s 67-73 kg category.

Being her maiden continental championship, Ogalo could not hide her joy upon clinching silver after tough battles with the North Africans.

“I wanted gold but going home with silver is not that bad considering the quality of opponents I faced in Egypt and Morocco,” Ogalo told Citizen Digital.

The 23-year-old second-year student at Kibabii University said she is now turning her focus to next year’s Olympics Qualifiers that will also be held in Morocco.

“My dream is to one day be an Olympic champion and I am working towards that. I have been an East Africa Champion now I have moved a step further to the continental stage and I would like to thank my coach and the federation for all the support they have given us,” said Ogalo.

Despite bagging the two medals, head coach George Wasonga has blamed the government for neglecting them in the build up to the tournament.

“The team has done very well despite many challenges we have gone through. We never had enough support in our training and we could have done even much better but we are fighting for our flag despite that,” observed Wasonga.

The two medals now take Kenya’s medal tally to three; two silvers and a bronze with the women Beach Volleyball having won the other silver medal on Tuesday.

Kenya is currently ranked 16th on the medal standings although with athletics which is Kenya’s stronghold set to kick off on August 26.

Women Volleyball team Malkia Strikers will begin their title defence on Saturday with a matcha against African champions Cameroon