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Team captain Stanley Mburu also encouraged more women to join the sport.
National team coach Tim Colby believes that in the next three years, Ice Hockey is going to be one of the greatest sports in the country.
Colby revealed that he started the sport for fun some years back but with time, people started coming out and showing interest in the sport and that is how they formed the national team, also known as Kenya Ice Lions.
“We just started playing haphazardly but with time, people started coming in and things became serious. That’s how we formed the team,” he told KBC Sport.
He disclosed that so far, they have about 50 players in the team and he is optimistic that more people will join as time goes by.
The Ice Lions train at the Panari Ice Skating Rink, the only Ice Skating Rink in East Africa.
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12:09 - 04.04.2023
HOCKEY Kenya Ice Hockey team dreaming of Olympic qualification
The captain has eyes on the Winter Olympics and Hockey World Cup among other international tournaments.
“It’s the smallest program because it’s new but as time goes by, we shall be on the world map,” he said.
He said they have organised more tournaments going forward and he hopes that will enable more people to join the sport.
Getting training equipment has been a challenge for them since they can hardly be found in Africa. He said they ship the training gear from abroad and rely on donations considering the equipment is also expensive.
On his part, team captain Stanley Mburu called upon people who have an interest in the sport to show up. He also encouraged women to join the sport in large numbers.
“You just need to learn the basics of skating. We have a few ladies playing with us but we hope more will join so we can have a full ladies’ team,” he said.
He also lamented that financial challenges have been their major challenge and he called upon the government and private to support them.
Currently, the team has not been registered under the International Ice Hockey Federation but they hope that the process will be done soon.
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