Hockey: Kenya, Uganda qualify for 2023 Africa Games

Kenya men’s and women’s national hockey teams have qualified for next year’s Africa Games in Ghana.

Kenya will be in the company of neighbours Uganda.

Kenya and Uganda booked the slots after the North-East Africa region qualifiers that were scheduled for next week at the Sikh Union Stadium in Nairobi  were cancelled.

The qualifiers, which were scheduled for May 17-21, were to feature eight nations with the top two nations in each gender qualifying for the event.

The countries were Tanzania , Egypt, Burundi, Libya, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.

However, by last Tuesday, only Kenya and Uganda had confirmed participation a move that saw Africa Hockey Federation declare the two as the qualified nations.

A letter addressed to Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) chairman Nashon Randiek from the AHF said: “Reference is made to the above mentioned regional tournament which should begin on the May 17, nine days from today. The AfHF was hoping that Tanzania men’s and women’s teams would be able to confirm joining Kenya and Uganda but this was finally confirmed as not possible.”

“Kenya and Uganda are therefore declared by the AfHF as qualified teams from the North-East Region for the 2023 Africa Games-cum-2024 Paris Olympic qualifier.”

The African body also asked Kenya and Uganda to play test series matches.

“In case both your NAs would still like to play in a format of a test series matches, the AfHF would welcome it and will sanction such event given KHU follows the required sanctioned event process,” the letter read.

KHU Secretary General Wycliffe Ongori said they hope they will organise test series matches against Uganda.

“It’s something we are looking into and hopefully it comes to pass. Remember we hosted Uganda national teams last year," Ongori said.