The national women’s football team has switched focus to the Central African Football Association (Cecafa) Women Championships to be played in Tanzania between November 16 and 24.
Harambee Starlets arrived back in Nairobi on Tuesday after their fourth round Olympic qualifier loss away in Zambia and immediately left for Tanzania Wednesday morning.
Starlets coach David Ouma maintains that the team’s spirit remains high as they now look forward to a different competition where they plan to use all efforts to proceed to the finals.
Kenya is in group B with Uganda, Ethiopia and Djibouti, while group A has Tanzania, Burundi, Zanzibar and South Sudan.
Starlets lost 3-2 on aggregate to Zambia’s Shepolopolo following a 1-0 loss in the second leg fourth round 2020 Tokyo Olympic Qualifier at the Nkoloma Stadium, Lusaka on Monday.
The results officially locked out the Starlets from proceeding to the fifth and final round of the competition as Zambia proceed to meet Cameroon in an attempt to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
Inter-Confederation playoff
Starlets braved through their previous matches to finally meet Zambia by successfully beating both Malawi (5-3) and Ghana (1-0) in the first two rounds of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) Olympic qualifiers.
Cameroon’s Lionesses edged out Côte d’Ivoire 2-1 on aggregate in their second leg meeting at the Yaounde Omnisport Stadium on Tuesday.
The two sides a had played out a barren draw in the first leg.
Côte d’Ivoire advanced to the fourth stage of the competitions by beating both Mali (3-0) and Nigeria (1-1) on aggregate, while Cameroon won (1-1) on aggregate against Ethiopia and (3-2) against DR Congo in their first two rounds.
Zambia and Cameroon are now on the brink of qualification where the loser between the two teams will play against Chile in a two-legged Inter-Confederation playoff, while the winners will get an automatic ticket to the 2020 Olympics.