Kenya garners two gold at Para Badminton Games in Turkey

Speaking right after the final whistle, the national team captain Newton Gatobu emphasized the need for continuity making a plea to his federation bosses and the government to provide athletes with infrastructure for the beach air Para-Badminton game to develop in Kenya.

“We didn't have a lot of time to train, this game is new to us and look we have won a world championship. Turkey and Bahrain have some 13,14 and even 16 year olds at the national team being developed, I believe if Kenya can emulate that, then the sport in general will have a future back home,” an elated Gatobu said.

Kenya's tactician John Mburu sent Kenya in the first final, the mixed tripples with Patrick Mwema, Benson Nduva and Mary Nduku starting while Caleb Omollo and Boniface Were came in as substitutes against a Turkey 2 side that had Burak May, Mustafa Tugra Nur and Tugje Celik starting while Elif Dokuzluoglu was their only substitute, losing 3-1 to Kenya, a maiden gold medal for Mburu's charges on foreign soil.

Kenya 1 warmed up Mary Nduku, Patrick Mwema and Caleb Omollo to start the first quarter of sprinting to the 60-point mark, while Benson Nduva, Elizabeth Nabwire and Nicholas Keiyo spectated from the bench.

Turkey 1 on the other side had Hüseyin Sagïn, Halime Yíldíz, Ilker Tuzcu ele Nur, Yazici Nazli Akpinar and Fuhat Soruklu to defend their nations pride on the sandy beaches of Pompei.

It was a well balanced affair untill both teams raced to the 30-point mark, Kenya being the first scorers, leaving Turkey six points behind and leading to a push and shove up to change the tide.

With seven scores to go to the 60-point mark, Kenya changed sides with Nabwire, Nduva and Omollo playing the last quarter forcing Turkey against the wind, a difficult manoeuver for their striking shuttles.

Omollo and Nduva sandwiched Nabwire, covering both of their extreme sides and leaving the lady to Marshall the Center , an advantage to the agile Nduva who nailed the last score to make it 60, a second gold medal for Kenya and first in the historical inaugural World Ability Sports beach games, The Mixed Tripples Relays.