This archive report was first published on 29 October 2019.
Kenya's basketball dominance in the Africa Women Zone Five Championship came to an end as Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) failed to retain their title in the 2019 championship.
For the third consecutive year, the title changed hands between Kenyan clubs, with KPA winning in 2016 and 2017, and Equity Bank Hawks dethroning them in 2018.
Despite expectations of a Kenyan title win, the championship was won by JKL of Uganda, with KPA finishing as runners-up and earning a spot at the Africa Women Championship in Madagascar.
Equity Bank Hawks, on the other hand, finished fourth after losing to JKL in the semifinals and APR of Rwanda in the third-place playoffs.
Speaking after the championship, Equity Bank head coach David Maina attributed their semifinal loss to the absence of key player Betty Kananu, who was injured.
“We lost our main scorer Betty Kananu who got injured, we also need to work on our defence both at individual level and as a team,” Maina observed.
Maina also emphasized the need to invest and professionalize the local league to enable Kenyan teams to compete effectively in the region.
On the other hand, KPA captain Brenda Angeshi attributed their performance to hard work and consistency.
“Hard work and consistency got us to the final though we fell short of our target but we thank God we got to qualify to the continental championship,” she said.
