NAIROBI, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Kenya faces a hard task ahead to return to the Olympic Games in hockey as it comes up against seven other teams in the Africa qualifiers, which will be held in South Africa from Aug. 12-18.
The tournament, which will be preceded by the African Hockey Federation congress on Aug. 7, will see Kenya take on giants and host South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Namibia, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Egypt for the sole ticket to the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.
Dubbed the African Hockey Road to Tokyo 2020, Kenyan teams are buoyant about their chances navigate through the qualifiers to make the final, which will see their return to the games for the first time in over two decades.
Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) president Nashon Randiek is optimistic one of the national teams will excel.
"The Africa qualifier offers us the chance to seal the Olympic ticket and we must exploit and snatch the chance. Kenya has talented players and the Africa qualifiers has some of the best teams in the continent, which makes it a competitive championship," said Randiek on Wednesday.
Kenya, which missed out to play at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, is bent on making an appearance at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
KHU selected the national team players through trials method, a move away from random picks by the head coach. Randiek feels the team is strong and will weather the storm in South Africa.
Hockey will not be part of the Africa Games in Morocco from Aug. 19-30 because hosts Morocco have no hockey facilities. Africa Hockey Federation has since opted to use the Olympic qualifiers as their continental games.
