23 July 2015

KENYA : KBF cancels weekend league games in Nairobi.


  • Ulinzi's Emmaculate Agusta drives past KPA's Natalie Akinyi in a league match last weekend. KPA host USIU-A on Saturday. (Photo by Shutterspeed)
Kenya Basketball Federation has cancelled all the weekend matches which were supposed to be played in Nairobi at the weekend.
This development has been occasioned by the 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit that begins on Friday.
A statement from fixtures secretary Joseph Amoko read; “note that due to the visiting of The President of USA and the meetings which will be held in Nairobi, games scheduled for this weekend in Nairobi have been shelved to a later date. Games outside Nairobi will go on as scheduled.”
Because of the cancellation, the inter-conference meeting in Mombasa between Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and United States International University- Africa (USIU-A) in both men's and women's Premier Leagues will be the key highlight. KPA and USIU-A are still unbeaten in women's Premier League.
While USIU-A has remained consistent with players who won the league last season, KPA has an almost total transformation bringing in experienced players who have been impressive. Western Delight will host Kisumu Lady Bucks in Kakamega in the other women's premier league.
In the mean time, local basketball coaches who took part in the 1st Annual Youth Sports Fitness and Conditioning Workshop were trained on how to prepare players for endurance on the court. The workshop was conducted by international professional trainer Colin Harris from United Kingdom. He is in the country for a series of training sessions at the Sadili Oval Sports Academy.
On Tuesday, KBF roped him in to take coaches through a clinic that focused on flexibility and core stabilization among other aspects of strength and conditioning. The interactive session had coaches learn new tricks for preparing players on endurance which is very critical. They learned the best ways to structure conditioning and fitness training for basketball as well as injury prevention.
“Basketball is one of the most dynamic sports in the world today. Players need to maximize on speed and power especially when they jump and make moves,” he said. “Strength and conditioning needs to be done regularly for a player to gain maximum benefits. It got to be a lot of internal training, core strength and jumping to gain more power.”
Clubs in the country have not invested in strength and conditioning regime and for those in attendance, the clinic was an eye-opener. Ronnie Owino (Strathmore University), Carey Odhiambo (Co-op Bank) Carol Ouma (Co-op Bank), Charles Goro (KCA-U) and Evelyn Kedogo (Eagle Wings) were among the attendees.
Speaking to sportsnewsarena.com after the workshop, Odhiambo termed the workshop as valuable. He said local coaches need more of that to be at par with other international leagues. “It was for things to do with training players on balance, how to run quick and most of the things that we don't do. He has taught us one critical thing; players should not train for like two consecutive hours but they need breaks.”
KBF Weekend Fixtures
Saturday: JKUAT vs Baraka Xtreme (10 a.m., MKU), MKU Thika vs World Hope (12 p.m.), KPA vs USIU-A Flames (2 p.m., KPA), KPA vs USIU-A Tigers (4 p.m.), Western Delight vs Kisumu Lady Bucks (10 a.m., KPC).

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