Tales of Serena Williams, Kenya Morans is the heavy emotional stuff sports is made of

Two sport event outcomes over the weekend played havoc with my nerves. Thank God, I do not bet. But first a little bit of perspective. 

Let no one ever lie to you that she or he is neutral when watching a sports event. Whether one likes it or not, you will be either elated or disappointed with the outcome, as long as you were interested in that event.

Again, let no one ever lie to you that sports journalists observe neutrality when covering sports events. Utter balderdash.

In fact, many a moving sports story is penned because of the emotional attachment the writer has to the result.

Can you imagine Kenya’s Harambee Stars qualifying for the Fifa World Cup! The motivated Kenyan sports writers will have a field day.

I am not a particularly keen tennis follower but I stay in touch with what is happening in the local game, and internationally as well.

I absolutely admire Swiss Roger Federer, who in his prime was the ultimate technician. Playing flawless tennis so effortlessly, you cannot begrudge him his titles.

German Steffi Graf won 22 Grand Slams. She holds the record of longest stay as world number one of 377 weeks, and was the first player to achieve a “Golden Slam”, that is, winning all four majors plus the Olympic gold medal in the same year. She was the best of the best. 

Then along came Serena Jameka Williams.The American tennis superstar needs no introduction.

She is a professional tennis player and former world No. 1 in women’s single tennis. She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most by any player in the Open Era, and the second-most of all time behind Australian Margaret Court (24 titles)

I must admit, I never started out as a Williams fan. Perhaps because I found her power game in the women’s circuit somehow unfeminine (Celestine Olilo, please don’t shoot me), or did not feel the need to support the athlete based on our shared race.

But when titles started piling up, and the prejudice and meanness against her from the tennis establishment kept pace, I found myself defiantly joining her legion of admirers.

Since winning her 23rd major title while pregnant on January 28, 2017, beating her elder sister Venus 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Australian Open, I have been waiting expectantly for her record equaling 24th haul. Williams, 39, has thus far lost in four Grand Slam finals.

She looked well on course to finally get that coveted 24th crown on Thursday only to fall to Japan’s Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-4 in the Australian Open semi-finals.

Williams broke down in tears at the post-match press conference. According to AFP, when she was pressed to explain why she made so many mistakes in the match, she simply said: “I don’t know. I am done,” before walking out on the press conference.

Gutting. I almost shed a tear for her and for me. I really, really wanted her to win and cement her name in tennis history as the Goat (greatest of all time).

I was also confident that Kenya would write history and qualify for the AfroBasket final. What I did not expect is the style in which they did it.

Let me confess, I follow the NBA more than our local and continental basketball. Nevertheless, I know Kenya last qualified for the African finals way back in 1993 – as hosts.

I also know that three years ago, Kenya Basketball Federation embarked on a deliberate effort to bring in all diaspora Kenyan – from Australia to Europe and America, into the team and the results have been there to see.

First, Kenya stormed through the pre-qualifiers unbeaten last year. Placed in Group “B” of the qualifiers proper with continental giants Angola and Senegal together with Mozambique, it was always going to be a tough assignment for the Morans to make the top three spots and qualify for the African finals.

Indeed Kenya were whitewashed by Senegal (92-54) and Angola (83-66) in the first round of qualifiers in November in Kigali, only staying alive with a battling 79-62 win over Mozambique.

With a new coach in inspirational Australian Liz Mills, Kenya only needed to match the results of Mozambique in the second round of qualifiers in Yaounde last week to book their place in Africa. 

Felled mighty Angola 

They pushed Senegal hard before falling 69-51 on Friday and no one gave them a chance against African giants Angola in their second match the following day.

The Morans went on to slay the formidable Angolans 74-73 with ice-cool Tylor Ongwae accounting for the buzzer beating winning points. Euphoric! Pictures of Kenya Morans celebrating like they had won the World Cup told it all.

This was the first victory by Kenya, ranked 112 in the world by Fiba, over Angola (ranked 32). Remember Angola are also 11-time champions of Africa.

It did not matter that the Morans crashed 44-71 to unfancied Mozambique on Sunday. Who really cared? Morans had beaten an African basketball mega superpower.

Truth be told, Kenya Morans are not my favourite national team, and many times I have felt nothing about their performance. But on this night, I almost slept with my shoes on, as did many Kenyans. Oh, the joy of sports!

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