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Despite beating Kenya Ice Lions to the gold medal, Team World’s captain Faith Sihoho acknowledged that a tactical change made them overcome a hard-to-beat Team Kenya.
“Team Kenya is very good and fast. We were behind after the first period and we had to rethink our tactics to beat them. We need to train hard to be able to overcome them with ease next time,” Sihoho said.
Team World defeated Kenya Ice Lions 6-4 to win the second edition of the Madaraka Cup title in the four-day competition held at the Panari Hotel, Nairobi.
“We are very proud to win the title. This win gives us confidence and going into the next tournament, we will be very ready,” Sihoho commented.
Ice Lions bagged silver while Team Canada took home bronze. The Canadians beat the Select Team to claim the bronze medal.
Team Kenya captain Benjamin Mburu conceded defeat saying: “We lost to an experienced team with good skaters”.
Mburu however attested that there has been a massive improvement in the team compared to 2019.
“I can say there has been a great improvement from 2019 and the opponents can attest that. For now, we will go back to the drawing board, review our mistakes and work on them,” Mburu pointed out.
Ice Lions started off the competition brilliantly mauling Team Canada 9-2 on the first day of the tournament. Mburu found the back of the net four times while Hussein Shah and Hanan Ali added a brace each.
Trevor Mwangi scored Kenya’s other goal while Dan Deslauriers and Jason Salsturi scored for Canada.
Team World kick-started their title chase with a 6-4 win against the host Ice Lions in a highly charged second game of the tourney.
Juan Keina was the star of the match showing off his goal-scoring antics and beating the Kenyan keeper four times. Vudik Baneika converted a penalty while Chris Amunziato also got on the score sheet for Team World.
Hanan Ali and Hussein Shah were impressive again for Ice Lions but their efforts could not save them from a world-class team.
Ali bagged his second brace of the tournament while Hussein and Dennis Lumumba scored once apiece.
Team World added another win in game three after beating Team Canada 9-6 in what was an exciting game.
“It’s both a privilege and an honor to host a high-level tournament like this. As the only ice rink in East and Central Africa, our plan is to make this game better and hopefully provide expertise to those who are willing to be involved in the sport,” James Chege, Panari group sales and marketing manager said.
The US won the first edition of the tournament in 2019.
The competition has not been held for the last three years because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The US missed out on this year’s tournament but, instead, was represented by Team World composed of players from North America, Europe and Asia. BY THE STAR