Nairobi — The Kenya judo federation has picked two experienced Judokas to represent the country at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom from July 28-August 8.
Africa Championship gold medalist Felista Marangi alongside silver medalist Kevin Munangwe have booked the two tickets avaiIlable for team Kenya judo to the games.
Coach Joseph Mburu is happy with the preparation so far with all the players responding well to training.
The two players heading to the club games have training partners with them in camp at Kasarani. The coach says they are lucky that they have no injuries.
"What spoils the athletes training is injuries but at the moment we are injury free and training is superb. You enjoy training when you are injury free," said the coach.
Having achieved good results at the Africa Championship in 2021, Coach Mburu has high expectations as the team heads to Birmingham.
"I am expecting medals because the preparation since way back I think in 2013 in Glasgow where we reached the quarterfinals and missed the semi finals by a whisker have been good. We are heading to the finals and taking gold this time," stated the coach.
His only regret is that he has few athletes in camp for training purposes. Judo expected to be allocated at least seven slots for the Commonwealth Games but only two are available.
Murangi, who will be taking part in the over 78 kg category, says this is the best preparation she has ever had before any championship.
She observes that "I am training well, I have everything, I can't complain. Imagine I'm also getting nice massages! My coach is doing a good job and in the competition ahead, the commonwealth games, I'm hoping to do well and bring home a medal, possibly a gold."
For her, a lot has happened since the last competition at the Africa Championship in Senegal in 2021 when she won gold for Kenya.
"I won gold with little techniques but now my coach has trained me in a lot of techniques, and my weaknesses like speed have also been rectified," she said.
She is glad that they they have training partners who are assisting them in shaping up for the competition.
"The players that we have in Camp are good and have trained well. They have advanced techniques, in fact if they are put in competition right now, they will do wonders," she observed
