Kenya raked in a silver and bronze as the inaugural Africa Beach Games burst into life in Sal, Cape Verde, Sunday after travel nightmares affected arriving teams.
Charles Mneria Yosei bagged a silver in the half marathon with Uganda’s Robert Chemonges taking gold in one hour, four minutes and 48 seconds.
Yosei clocked 1:05:24 with the bronze going to Djibouti’s Moumin Bouh in 1:06:12.
The women’s title also eluded Kenya with Florence Malyunga (1:22:37) finishing out of the medals in fourth place in the race won by Algeria’s Riham Senani (1:18:20) followed on the podium by Namibia’s Haitope Lavinia (1:19:06) and Uganda’s Priscilla Chelangat (1:20:25).
Kenya’s bronze came through the men’s doubles beach tennis team of Fazal Khan and Ibrahim Yego who defeated hosts Cape Verde’s David Dias and De Jesus Gildo in two straight sets of 7-5, 7-5 in the play-off.
In the women’s beach handball preliminary Group ‘A’ match, Kenya lost 2-0 to Tunisia (16-15, 17-12) with hosts Cape Verde defeating Algeria 2-0 (17-10, 17-12) in the other group match.
Togo defeated Tunisia 2-0 (11-7, 15-11) to win the men’s gold medal as Morocco defeated Nigeria 2-1 (11-10, 6-14, 3-2) to take bronze.
The Kenyan team faced travel hitches with National Olympic Committee of Kenya secretary Francis Mutuku expressing his frustrations.
Kenya was eliminated in the semi-finals of the karate competition with a difference of 0.02 points.
Meanwhile, the second Africa Beach Games will be hosted by Morocco, it was announced after a meeting of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa in Cape Verde..
The games in Cape Verde will also pick teams to represent Africa at the World Beach Games.
The World Beach Games were initially scheduled for San Diego, California, later this year but will be shifted to a yet to be confirmed venue.
The island of Sal in Cape Verde is hosting the inaugural African games until Sunday.
Kenya is being represented in kiteboarding, athletics (half marathon), canoeing and rowing, beach volleyball, karate, beach football, handball, beach tennis and swimming.
