Kenya kickstart goalball future in Brazil

The 2023 IBSA Goalball Youth World Championships U19 was a major Para sport milestone for Kenya. The African nation took part in the competition for the first time, with both boys and girls teams. For most of the young athletes, the tournament in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was the first time they had left their home country. The experience changed the lives of the 12 youngsters forever, according to coach Stephen Ojwan'g.  

“We came just to compete, but we had so much more than that," he explained. “There is only one goalball ball in the country, so you can imagine how hard it is for us to have training sessions.

"We don’t have specific fields of play, and we get most of our sessions in the sand or in the grass outdoors. This was the first time that we played with goal posts, but we compensated for all these obstacles with our strong will and passion for the game,” he added.

An unforgettable legacy

Ojwan’g was thrilled with the fantastic experience for his teams in Sao Paulo in July 2023. Other coaches helped them in every way, even outside the games themselves.

“We received a lot of gifts, including teddy bears, but most important of all, we have the chance to take with us, back to Kenya, four goalball balls! Two of them were gifted by Brazil, one from the USA and the other from Korea. Do you know what this means?”, smiled Ojwan’g.

“This means that we can open goalball academies in our blind schools. Each ball means one new academy, so we can grow our recruitment centres and develop even more of this great sport in Kenya”.

It’s in these schools that the coach is finding new players. Jesmin Moraa is the youngest of the group, at only 13 years' old (the oldest is 18).

“Although she started to practise last month, I brought her with us because she has a real love for the game. She never missed a training session, tries to do everything I ask in the best way, and really dug deep into this. She has a future, so let’s motivate her even more to carry on!”

Looking to the future

The participation of both teams was entirely funded by the Kenyan government, which wants to support and raise the spirit of inclusion in Kenyan society, especially through sport.

Although they left the Championships without a win, they were proud of the goals they scored on the international stage: five for the boys and three for the girls.

“We celebrated them as victories, of course! No one can blame us, and nobody did. We don’t have any protective gear, no eyeshades, we cover the eyes with pieces of clothing, but with the ball, we do all the rest," explained Ojwan'g. 

"This was an unbelievable experience. We will return to Kenya so much more focused and motivated to go on our programme to give these boys and girls a path for high performance sport, so they can reach the senior level much more prepared and give some pride to our country.”