Kenya bundled out of IHF trophy Youth championship

National Under-18 men's handball team will not be defending the title they won in the last championship held in Uganda in 2018 as they were bundled out of this year's edition of the IHF Africa Zone Five championship in the semi final stage by Rwanda. 

Kenya, who had an unbeaten run in their group stage of the competition being held in Nairobi were hoping to go past the Rwandese side for a chance to defend their title but that was never to be as they went down 38-29 in a highly competitive match hosted at the Ulinzi Sports Complex. 

"This was a below-average performance for my team as I know what they are capable of. Our biggest undoing was the many turnovers. We gave many blind passes that ended up as goals for our opponents and it became tough to recover. 

We exit the championship with lessons learned despite not being able to defend the title and get a chance to play in the continental championship," offered Kenya's head coach Gerald Juma. 

Juma's charges drew first blood but allowed the Rwandese side to go up 2-3 with five minutes played and with several missed chances that ended on either side's posts or the unfortunate walls behind the goal posts that took sound pounding this week. 

IHF Championship: Kenya Youth whitewash Ethiopia to book semis slot

Richard Mayindo leveled the score at three but five minutes later, Kenya was trailing 3-6 with goals from Aime Niyoyita and Mbesutunguwe. 

A brilliant show by the Kenyan shot stopper Joshua Simiyu helped the Kenyan side claw their way back to leveling the score at six goals as he denied the Rwanda side some open chances that would otherwise have hurt the hosts. 

Fifteen minutes into the match, Kenya found themselves trailing by three goals again at 7-10 and Juma needed a timeout to calm his charges nerves as they have given the ball away easily on several occasions. 

Kenya still trailed by three at the 20 minute mark but had cut it down to one at 13-14 with five minutes on the clock. A two minute suspension for Kenya, however, gave the Rwandese a chance to build their lead back to three as the half-time whistle went with the score at 14-17. 

Off the lockerooms, it was still Rwanda who continued to hold the advantage, growing to four goals in the first minutes and further to five at 25-20 with ten minutes played in the second half. 

Kenya went on a dry spell while their opponents goals kept coming and halfway through the second half Juma needed a timeout to speak to his charges as the match was slowly slipping off their fingers. Rwand led 23-30, giving the hosts a mountain to climb. 

Only eleven minutes stood between Rwanda and victory, having build a ten-goal cushion at this point at 33-23 and the Kenyan side unable to master the defense or even unlock their scoring shots. 

That the Kenyan side suffered back-to-back two minute suspensions in the last ten minutes of the game, with skipper Yusuf Pwoka getting his third that saw him relegated to the sin-bin for the remainder of the match did little to help Kenya's case as they went on to lose 29-38.