Kenya under-21 men’s side Monday revived their hopes of qualifying for the 2023 Junior World Cup after beating Zimbabwe 3-1 in the Africa Cup in Ismailia, Egypt.
Matthias Omwaka, Matthew Momanyi and Job Wandera put the Zimbabweans to the sword.
The Kenyans did not get the win easy as they had to subdue early pressure from Zimbabwe, who had three consecutive penalty corners just before the 10 minutes mark.
Kenya had three unsuccessful penalty corners thereafter after Zimbabwe’s Munyonga Akudzweishe picked a yellow card, before Omwaka broke the deadlock from another penalty corner just before the end of the first quarter.
Momanyi doubled Kenya’s lead with a field goal at the start of the second half.
Kenya conceded an early short corner in the final quarter which went inches wide as Zimbabwe piled pressure.
Coach Michael Malungu’s men conceded two consecutive penalty corners which they defended well before gaining numerical advantage after Akudzweishe was sent to the sin-bin again in the 50th minute.
Two late short corners for Zimbabwe yielded a penalty stroke scored by Ncube Joseph on 56 minutes to give the Southern Africans hope.
However, Kenya responded almost immediately with a field goal from Job Wandera. They conceded three back-to-back penalty corners, but defended superbly.
Charles Ashihundu was sent to the sin-bin with seconds to the final whistle, but it was too late for the Southern African side to capitalize on their numerical strength.
Kenya now need another win in their last match against heavyweights South Africa on Wednesday and hope results from the Egypt v Zimbabwe game also go their way for them to reach the final.
South Africa leads the round robin cup with six points after hammering Egypt 3-0 on Monday afternoon.
Mentoor Carlon, Maseko Tebogo and Neethling Hans scored for the reigning champions in the fourth, 29th and 54th minutes.
The South Africans demolished Zimbabwe 6-0 on March 12. Malungu’s side occupy second place on three points with a superior goal difference to Egypt, while Zimbabwe is last without a point.
Earlier, Kenyan women exited the race for the African title and a place in the World Cup after slumping to their second straight loss.
Meshack Senge’s charges suffered a 5-0 loss at the hands of South Africa, a day after succumbing to Egypt 2-0.
The two finalists in each gender qualify for the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup 2023 scheduled for December 5-16 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (men) and December 6-17 in Santiago, Chile (women). BY DAILY NATION