Nairobi — The national sevens head coach Darmian McGrath has warned his players that no one is guaranteed a place in the team that will be heading out to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Shujaa is the latest team to join the Commonwealth Games camp and have been boosted by the inclusion of experienced strength and conditioning coach, Geoffrey Kimani.
"The team suffered from lack of preparation before and I know the whole of Kenya just like the players themselves were disappointed with the last two legs of the world series. But we have Geoffrey Kimani on board now and we are working to improve things and those six weeks leading up to the Commonwealth Games are important because it is a huge preparation phase for us," said the coach.
McGrath has stated that this is the beginning of a new chapter for Kenya sevens, with the Commonwealth Games playing a key role in shaping the team moving forward.
"Commonwealth Games is a springboard into the next 12 months which include the Sevens World Cup and the World Sevens Series. So it is very important," observed the coach.
The head coach has the selected players in camp led by experienced Willy Ambaka and skipper Nelson Oyoo, but the coach insists he is always on the look out for emerging talents.
"The team is not a closed book. I am going to Mombasa to look at the national circuit (Driftwood). I know there are a lot of great players in Kenya and anyone who puts up their hand and puts up a good performance in the national circuit over the next few weeks and 12 months, we are always looking to have them in the team. It doesn't mean if you are in the team now you are in forever. They have to prove their worth," added the coach.
"We are training hard to medal for the first time at the Commonwealth Games. It is good that we are back in camp, and we have some good time to prepare and hope for the best," observed the captain.
He added "It has been a learning process from the time we started this journey and now we know where we made mistakes and we are trying to rectify them. We want to make it better going into the Commonwealth Games."
