Kenya bulldoze their way past Singapore again to retain Nations Cup netball crown

SINGAPORE – Dancing to the song, Jowi, proved to be the perfect move for the Kenyan netball team on Nov 8, for the tune – which in their native language Luo is about a buffalo “that is a very strong animal and doesn’t retaliate” – was the soundtrack of their strong title defence at the Singlife Nations Cup.

A 55-42 victory over hosts Singapore in the final saw the world No. 23 team maintaining their unbeaten record en route to the trophy at the OCBC Arena.

Kenya’s 44-year-old captain Parin Simiyu told The Sunday Times: “We feel great about the win because we expected this when we were coming.

“We knew the other teams are tough opponents and winning the championship again would not be easy, so we prepared ourselves well.

“Above all, staying in unity and playing with love have also played a very big role to our team winning here today.”

Indeed, throughout the week, Kenya posted assured performances in victories against Singapore (22nd), Malaysia (28th), Papua New Guinea (33rd), Singapore A (unranked), and Isle of Man (31st).

It was the same story in the final on Nov 8. The Singapore Vandas had raised hopes of avenging their 2024 final defeat against the same opponents after a

.

The hosts had also beaten the Africans 42-40 at the UAE Netball Cup in June, and claimed a 2-0 lead in front of over 1,600 raucous fans at the OCBC Arena Hall 1 in their latest encounter.

However, like the buffaloes in the song Jowi, Kenya stayed strong and united. They soon established control as their attackers found the space to punish their opponents’ unforced errors. They were 17-12 up at the end of the first period, before extending their advantage to 29-21 at half-time.

The visitors suffered an injury scare in the second quarter when their key goal shooter Lydia Nyapere took a knock and hobbled off after making all 20 shots.

While she returned after the interval, Singapore made a spirited fightback and trailed 32-35 before poor handling and shooting returned to haunt them. Kenya started to pull away again, ending the third quarter with a 40-34 lead before killing off the tie with a solid final period.

Ultimately, it was the hot shooting from Hellen Sinoya (14 goals from 15 attempts) and Nyapere (39 from 41) that gave the Kenyans the win.

Kenya coach Everlyne Cherono said: “We played with good togetherness and high morale, and the players communicated well in defence and offence throughout the match. Winning last year’s final helped us, but so did the loss in June.

“We went back and strategised, which is why we came here as a stronger team. This will help us prepare for the Africa Netball Cup in December.”

While they were disappointed they could not play their best in the final, there were still positives to take away for Singapore as they beat all the other teams,

. They are aiming to end a 10-year gold-medal drought at the Games in December.

Singapore co-captain Toh Kai Wei said: “We did actually start well, but after 2-2, we started getting nervous because our passes weren’t going through. Then we started doing things we don’t usually do and it took us a while for us to reset.

“But this is definitely a good build-up for the SEA Games, as we were able to identify our strengths and weaknesses and things we need to work on in the next three weeks to get ready for the SEA Games.

“We have been doing more conditioning, skills and agility work to build us up, and the expectation is definitely to win the gold medal.”

National coach Tara Steel felt her team had improved from the

.

She added: “We are still building, and depth is a big opportunity and challenge for our squad, and we have had some players in and out through injury.

“We probably peaked one game too early with the (68-39) win against Malaysia in terms of performance. But everybody had growth moments throughout the week, so we’ll only get stronger as a team with that experience and it prepares us really well going into SEA Games.”

Papua New Guinea beat Malaysia 69-54 for third place, while Singapore A beat Isle of Man 53-39 to finish fifth.

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