Kenya: Gaudencia, Agala Hope to Continue Setting the Pace at Big Stage

2 August 2022
Capital FM (Nairobi)
By Alex Isaboke

Birmingham — Kenya's beach volleyball stars Gaudencia Makokha and Brackcides Agala have been in seventh heaven since arriving in Birmingham for the on-going Commonwealth Games.

Following their Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games debut last year, Gaudencia and Agala hope to continue ruffling feathers and aiming higher at international level.

For Agala, she believes that her international exposure will definitely serve up great moments ahead and inspire countless other young people in Africa to take up beach volleyball.

"At least I have a story to tell in future. When I go back home, I will try to reach out to young boys and girls. Beach Volleyball isn't popular in Africa and that's why we are here in Birmingham-to try and inspire a whole generation of boys and girls," Gaudencia said after their match against Canada.

Gaudencia, nevertheless, reckons that support back home is wanting. "At least when we were bracing up for Commonwealth, we had like two months in training. Last month when we were going for the World Championship, we didn't even train with Blackie (Agala)."

"Commonwealth is going on well. The result we got is not quite what we wanted as a team, but I thank God that we keep improving game by game."

"When we were playing against Canada, we didn't play well in the second set. The first set was all good. We made mistakes on ball reception. So, when we play Ghana in our last match, we will need to rectify those mistakes."

-Agala says Kenya need more exposure-

On her part, Gaudencia's teammate Agala was also left to rue their second set quagmire against Canada and added that they are determined to make up for the loss in their match against Ghana.

"If we beat Ghana, then we will be in the quarters and that's one thing we will be fighting all the way to achieve. Our pool is very tough though," she narrated.

Agala is calling on stakeholders to accord them more support.

"Sadly, we hardly get enough time to train together with Gaudencia and as such it adversely affects our performance. We need to be together always and play in more events to get enough exposure and play time on sand."

-Alex Isaboke is reporting from Birmingham, United Kingdom-

Read the original article on Capital FM.

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