Hammamet — The national men's handball team has secured a fifth place finish at the second edition of the Africa Beach Games in Hammamet, Tunisia, following a straight sets victory over Mali in the classification match on Monday morning.

This is a massive improvement from their ninth place finish at the first edition of the games held in Sal, Cape Verde, in 2019.

Team player Victor Otuoma, who was also Team Kenya's flag bearer at the tournament said they were delighted with the performance and the finish.

"As a team we have made tremendous strides and we have been improving match by match. It is a massive improvement from the last championship. We are delighted as a team with this and hopefully we continue moving up," Otuoma said.

He also admitted that the performance of the women's team also motivated them.

"We have been seeing the women win their matches and do well and we thought why not us too? We also wanted to make the team proud and not be a let down and we had to work hard against Mali," added Otuoma.

The Kenyan boys started well and had a good lead, but the West Africans fought back. With 7:50 played, they went into the lead for the first time, going 12-10 up, prompting Kenya to a time out.

Upon return, Kenya went on level terms, then Kevin Obunga who was in the special player position scored for two to take Kenya 14-12 up. With 43 seconds to play, Mali called for a time out and levelled upon return.

Skipper Derrick Otieno then scored for a point to see Kenya lead 15-14. With Mali in possession, they attempted to go for two with a spin shot but keeper Francis Hamisi made a brilliant block, Kenya winning the opening set 15-14.

The Kenyan boys were unstoppable in the second set, as they went on to win 19-13, making most use of the special player to accumulate two-point goals.